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The Fantasy and the Cultural Politics of a Popular Novel based on a magazine of the masses's entertainment of the 1950’s - focused on the Magazine for amusements MyeongRang

HyunJu Kim 1

1한양대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

A magazine produced cultural politics which the new age required, meeting the desire and ambition of public reader based on commercial applications since the modern age. While a magazine for amusements occupied extensively publication market and public reader in 1950’s, MyeongRang (『명랑』) of them played a role in constructing the identity of a magazine for amusements as a public place of sexual opinion. Especially, as a love affair novel in MyeongRang in 1950’s targeted at young people in their twenties, it was discussing sexual fantasy as a discourse. In addition, while it made sexual fantasies popularize, it generated the certain cultural and political effect. However, there was subtle change in the way after and before 1958. In other words, as women found sexual-ego when crossing the borderline between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ family in a love affair novel in the middle of 1950s, they were reproduced as an active subject that could have a right to a sexual Selfdetermination to decide. As women felt an atmosphere of terror caused by sexual deviance by themselves and controlled their sexual desire, they got to ‘inside’ family. As the result, the readers enjoyed the sexual fantasy of a love affair novel without anxiety. On the other hand, just man was reproduced as a subject that had a right to a sexual self-determination to decide in a love affair novel in the late 50’s. As the result, it was divided naturally woman into ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ family and derived strongly more the patriarchal ideology that compelled sex norms of woman. Therefore, it was ridiculed, and adjusted them to unconsciously accept the ideas that it is common sense and universal that the sexual desire of woman is collected to just man ‘inside' family. Like such that, MyeongRang recognized sex as spirit of freedom and challenge in the mid-50’s, on the other hand, it cooperated to the cultural managed by the Korean Government and became as entertainment consumption goods of the images composed with faked reality, so it was eliminating spirit of liberalism inside sexual desire. Therefore, a love affair novel in MyeongRang constituted its identity as Kitsch on amusement offerings that commercialized sex and consumed, and played a part for making reading novel as a substandard goods, which promoted taste-class after modern times.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.