2018, Vol.24, No.4

A Study on How to Vitalize Literature Museums/Literary Spaces and the Cases of Contents Planning―Focusing on Pak Kyongni’s Toji

SeungYun Lee | 2018, 24(4) | pp.9~34 | number of Cited : 8

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The purpose of this study is to examine several literature museums/literary spaces related to the writer Pak Kyongni and her novel Toji, and the characteristics and status of each of them. The changes in the environment surrounding literature are naturally altering the public’s culture-consuming patterns as well as, ultimately, the production, consumption, and distribution of literature. The creation of various spaces related to literature, too, is one of the concrete examples of these changes. This study aims to critically investigate contents planning and program operation in literature museums/literary spaces and to also explore methods of vitalizing literature museums using this as its basis. We can find distinguishing literary spaces dealing with Pak Kyongni and her novel Toji in Seoul, Wonju, Hadong, and Tongyeong. Some are operating their programs successfully according to the regional characteristics, but some are showing a tendency to repeat the same words and obvious errors. Literature museums should not behave like stationary objects to be seen like a stuffed bird but rather as living entities that should actively cope with the outer environment. Literature museums should play roles as a medium that allows people to be closer to the original source. Using literature museums as the base, we need to conduct research on literature and develop a variety of participating programs such as training sessions and exhibitions. These museums should be allowed to lead activities so that they can evolve as complex cultural spaces. When literature museums are located sporadically just like those for writer Pak Kyongni and her novel Toji, it is necessary to found and operate an organ or committee that can function as a control tower that may oversee their roles. Also, it is urgently needed to secure experts that can operate and manage the literary spaces. The absence of experts will lead to a lack of expertise in literature museums after all. Only when an expert is secured that is equipped with professional knowledge about the literature museums, will it be possible to carry out the reproduction of literary works, succession of the author’s artistic spirit, development of lectures, or the planning of exhibitions and experiential activities to attract and intrigue visitors. Of course, to realize all these things favorably, it is needed for the local government to provide financial support. However, it is not the local government’s exclusive duty to plan and build literature museums/literary spaces and implement the policy. Meaningful results can be produced when there is communication and cooperation between the local government and expert groups specializing in the planning of architecture, design, and contents.

The Possibility of Extending the Contents of Popular Culture by Disorganizing the Original―Focusing on novel Toji’s ‘Inmulyeoljeon’(The Characters’s story)

Cho, Yun A | 2018, 24(4) | pp.35~62 | number of Cited : 0

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As Pak Kyong-ni’s novel Toji has been utilized in various kinds of media including movies, dramas, and cartoons, it has been considered appropriate to touch the original as little as possible. But the recently released ‘Inmulyeoljeon’ disorganizes the original aggressively. In fact, it approaches the narrative with only one character as the main character. The purpose of this study is to analyze ‘Inmulyeoljeon’ and to examine the possibility of expanding the contents of popular culture by disorganizing the original. There are 18 pieces of ‘Inmulyeoljeon’ that have been released in ‘the Festival of Pak Kyong-ni Literature’ from 2011 to 2018, and 18 characters have been spotlighted so far. They can be divided into four types according to the characteristics of description. In the first type, the presenter intervenes as little as possible and quotes and reorganizes the original just as it is. The second type can be viewed as a supplementary story as the presenter imagines and adds contents that are not in the original. In the third type, the presenter acts as a storyteller, delivering to the audience interesting and moving stories about the character’s lifetime. Lastly, the fourth type seeks to aid readers in understanding the original better with specialized analysis and interpretation. The first type is advantageous as it allows us to have a similar experience to reading the original. However, as it strictly maintains the preservation of the original, it is insufficient in inducing the public to partake in independent as well as active cultural activities. The second and third types are beneficial as they encourage the public readers to imagine freely and allow them to be transferred from being just a reader to being a character or even a writer and may also vitalize the public as readers. The fourth type is advantageous because it can enhance the level of readers who have read the original faithfully; however, it still lacks as a text for readers who find it difficult reading the original. ‘Inmulyeoljeon’ shows us the possibility of creating new text that can be read with pleasure and easiness while actively disorganizing the original of the classic Toji. If more diverse fields are opened where anyone can be the author of ‘Inmulyeoljeon’, it will be possible to produce even more interesting and noticeable contents of popular culture afterwards.

A Study on the Interactive Content Adaptation of Toji —Focusing on ‘Kando Story’

Choi Bae Eun | 2018, 24(4) | pp.63~95 | number of Cited : 1

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With the development of the cultural industry, literary works are made into various content. Regardless of what this content may be, they are looking for effective forms of enabling their active participation and interaction with appreciators. However, as interactive content is prone to constrain the action of its appreciators, appreciators may become passive unless it is effectively created. In Korea, most literary interactive content tends to be produced in the form of theme parks or exhibition halls, which put knowledge before feelings and experiences. As a result, their viewers remain as mere spectators. In order to remedy the problem, we need to plan the content in accordance with the actual circumstances of the viewers. For this reason, this study takes Pak, Kyong-ni’s novel, Toji as an example. Toji as a telling form, has been adapted for TV dramas and comics in its viewing form, and for literature museums or literature parks as an interactive form. However, Toji, a long historical novel set in Korea, China, Japan and Russia, can produce various content depending on the generation and region of appreciators. For example, if a Toji literature museum or literature park is established in Kando, it should be in a different concept from that of the literature museum in Pyeongsari or the literature park in Wonju. In other words, it should be consistent with the locale of the ethnic Koreans residing in Kando. The story in Kando, which begins with the second part of Toji, consists of two epic tales - one in which Pyeongsari people move to Kando, settle there and return home, and the other in which independence activists living as nomads fight against Japanese colonial rule. If we interpret and reconstruct the novel in terms of the history of ethnic Koreans in Kando. Toji will be an epic tale not only about the formation of ethnic Koreans in Kando but also about the anti-Japanese sacrifice of Korean ancestors. In this way, the focus and meaning of the narrative vary depending on the actual circumstances of the appreciators. Therefore, when we plan the literary interactive content, the appropriate reinterpretation of literary works will be the key to a successful content creation.

A Study on The Jeong Hyup Ji Concerning a Strategy for Securing Popularity―Focused on Diaspora

Ko Hoon | 2018, 24(4) | pp.99~120 | number of Cited : 0

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Narrative in the Slice-of-Life Genre and Self-Representation as Strategy—Focusing on Slice-of-Life Webtoons by Women

KEONHYUNG KIM | 2018, 24(4) | pp.121~160 | number of Cited : 14

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The recent popularity of observation-variety shows and personal broadcasts calls attention to biographical narrative strategies through which representations of the self within daily life are produced. Slice-of-life webtoons have largely been interpreted in generational terms, relating the neoliberal era to the irony and self- destructiveness of an othered youth culture. These interpretations limit the concept of youth to a ‘universal’ male perspective and make the slice-of-life genre into merely a reflection of a generational analysis provided by sociology. This study examines the politics produced by the slice-of-life genre’s principles of representation. Slice-of-life webtoons are unique in their biographical nature, narrating the daily life of the author through a character who represents the author him or herself, but they are also written with the active reader of the webtoon platform in mind. This study shows that the slice-of-life genre employs various narrative strategies to create the illusory identity of the ‘I’ who experiences the events and the narrative ‘I’ who interprets and reproduces them. The authorial ‘I’ works within these generic criteria to create an image of the implied author ‘I’ from the representations of ‘I’ as character and narrator. The slice-of-life genre’s unique political character arises from the ethical and aesthetic image of the implied author created through this biographical code. Michyeo Nalttwineun Saenghwaltun contradicts reader expectations for identity between the author and character by exposing the author’s true circumstances and bringing them in contact with the discourse on youth. The narrator aestheticizes the authorial ‘I’ as a ‘hard-working young person,’ but in the process under-represents the character’s femininity, highlighting the issue of gender representation. The narrator of Agi nanneun manhwa, a webtoon about the author’s pregnancy, criticizes the violence of the discourse surrounding pregnancy in Korean society and desacralizes the experience of motherhood using commentary from after the events of the narrative. In this way it creates an image of the authorial ‘I’ as a discursive subject who guides the reader. The slice-of-life genre’s unique narrative grammar of self-representation is a reminder that the ability to speak and represent the self is a political resource. Representation of one’s daily life is an especially important strategy for those ‘selves’ who cannot avoid being political.

A Study on the Criticism of Popular Culture and Culturalism in the Discourse of Cultural Movement in the 1980s

Kim, Sungil | 2018, 24(4) | pp.161~201 | number of Cited : 0

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This paper analyzes the form and significance of criticism of cultural movement discourse on popular culture and culturalism in the 1980s. At the time, in the discourse of cultural movements, popular culture and culturalism were understood as a culture for the sake of the ruling class to be used to suppress the resistance of the oppressed class. The cultural movement discourse, which was announced as part of the publishing movement, draws our critical attention as it speaks out the epistemology of the time. The discourse of cultural movement in the 1980s carried out the criticism of the characteristics, medium, and effect of popular culture as follows. First, popular culture was criticized as commercial culture and foreign culture at that time; especially, the criticism was given to the pursuit of explicit profits and acceptance of culture by Japan and the United States. Second, it was the criticism of the media, which was symbolized as “3S” and carried out in the monolithic cultural policy of the state power. Third, the effect of popular culture on the social reality was criticized that popular culture paralyzes social consciousness and distorted Shinmyeong(cultural sense of liberation and pleasure). Lastly, in the discourse of cultural movements in the 1980s, the criticism of artistic orientation, political neutrality, and Western dependence related to culturalism was developed as follows: firstly, the criticism of the nature of art by the culturalism that advocated “art for art’s sake” was carried out. Secondly, the criticism of the appropriation of art as an apolitical field was made. And, thirdly, the criticism of cultural elitism and blind faith in Western literary arts was raised. Theoretically, discussions on the negative aspects and dysfunctions of popular culture and culturalism are relatively clear. However, the problem is that there has been no empirical prior study on the criticism of popular culture and culturalism in the cultural movement discourse of the 1980s. Therefore, this paper attempts to construct a narrative of the criticism of mainstream culture by examining and referring to the original texts of cultural discourse at that time.

A New Topography of Korean Novels in the 21st Century, the Era of Digital Technology

Kim, Soryun | 2018, 24(4) | pp.203~236 | number of Cited : 5

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The Application of Local Inheritance in Jeonbuk Literature—Focused on Choe Myeng Hye’s Hon Bul

Kim Seung-jong | 2018, 24(4) | pp.237~259 | number of Cited : 0

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TV Dramas in the Post-Human Era―Focusing on “Are You Human?”

Lee Daun | 2018, 24(4) | pp.261~290 | number of Cited : 10

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‘Post-human’ involves human beings beyond the human, collectively referring to those who are conditioned to live a completely unconventional life in comparison with human beings both in the past and present, due to the advancement of science and technology. A post-human era, when Heidegger’s proposition of being-towards-death would sound unsubstantiated, heralds an epoch-making transformation that could substantially obliterate the thinking and identity accumulated by Homo sapiens. In the same vein, Korean society has witnessed a gain of attention to AI and Industry 4.0 since the ‘AlphaGo Shock’, while television dramas are unfolding fully-fledged post-human imagination. Particularly, “Are You Human?” presents the episodes of an imaginary AI humanoid robot situated in a Korean society based on post-humanist imagination. “Are You Human?” raises a question about humanity by re-enacting the depravity of humans who deny their humanity in juxtaposition with an AI robot that tries to be a real human by preserving the qualities of humanity. Also, the drama explores how to treat and coexist with a ‘machine-human’ that has acquired desires and a spontaneous will. “Are You Human?” explores a view that we should not treat an android in human form that has acquired human ways of thinking as nothing but a piece of machine. Rather it suggests that we must allow it a status similar or equal to that of a human. Moreover, the drama depicts a post-humanist agent, who breaks down the adamant normative boundary separating humans and organisms from non-humans and fabricated items by the portrayal of a human having true love for a ‘machine-human’. In conclusion, “Are You Human?” indicates a method of thought for a post-human era by suggesting a cross-sectional subjectivity nullifying the solid idea that only humans can be the subject.

Formation of New Nationalism Subject in 2010s through Spy Films―Focused on the movie, 'Secret Reunion', and 'The Berlin File'

Jeon Ji-eun | 2018, 24(4) | pp.291~328 | number of Cited : 1

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Postmodernism in the period of ‘Literaturism’ —The way in which criticism of the 1990s connects with postmodernism

Yeonjung Cho | 2018, 24(4) | pp.329~374 | number of Cited : 14

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New Mobilities Paradigm and Mobility-Based Textual Research Method

Jinhyoung Lee | 2018, 24(4) | pp.377~402 | number of Cited : 12

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This paper explores an alternative method of textual studies (mobility textual studies) by examining the case studies on visual or literary texts from the ‘new mobilities paradigm’, which appeared in Mobilities and Humanities (2018) edited by Peter Merriman and Lynne Pearce. Contrary to its title of “humanities”, Mobilities and Humanities consists of the essays dealing with visual or literary texts and their aesthetics. This paper categorizes them according to whether or not an essay focuses on automobility. Because the automobility system has a major social and cultural significance as a machine regarding our contemporary mobilities. First, the essays deal with the aspects of the co-evolution of the automobility system and visual and literary texts. Their arguments can be summarized as follows: an intimate interaction of the automobility system and the road movie genre, a mediated automobility as a kind of text, travel novel and the textual representation of “paralyzed mobility”, and a peculiarity of individual car journey and “technological unconsciousness”. Second, other papers deal with the issues of mobilities of form or representation of mobility by focusing on the relation of mobility and artistic form, which can be summarized as follows: “mobilities of form” or “mobile artistic form”, the formation of “slow feeling into place” (a sense of attachment and familiarity) in a mobile world through realistic representation, the possibilities of the (re-)reading of fictional narrative and the alternative politics based on the “retrospective character” of literary texts, an experience of urban mobilities by the individual traveler appeared in their life writings (diaries). The significance of Mobilities and Humanities could be said in two points: first, this book allows literary researchers to pay attention to automobility which has not been fully examined so far; second, it can inspire fresh discourse about the textual aesthetics from the perspective of a new mobilities paradigm.

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Journal of Popular Narrative 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.85

2018, Vol.24, No.4