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Catastrophic Representations of Local Extinction and the Emotional Structure of the Internal Colony : A Study on the The Land of Morning Calm

  • The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
  • 2026, (87), pp.123~154
  • Publisher : The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Received : December 9, 2025
  • Accepted : January 10, 2026
  • Published : January 31, 2026

Jeeheng Lee 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the catastrophic representations of local extinction depicted in the film The Land of Morning Calm, set in a rural fishing village in South Korea. Amidst the landscape of a contemporary fishing village where the youth have departed and only the elderly and migrant workers remain, natives and outsiders coexist due to realistic necessities. However, the film reveals that deep-seated prejudice against outsiders, violent communalism, and bureaucratic indifference persist beneath the surface. These representations unveil a complex structure of feeling regarding the question, "Why do today's local communities hurtle towards extinction and catastrophe?" transcending the demographic and economic explanations offered by existing discourses on local extinction. To analyze this, this study critically employs Michael Hechter’s theory of internal colonialism and Ashis Nandy’s discussions on internalized colonization. The fishing village in the film is represented as an internal colony where economic exploitation by the center and a rigid cultural division of labor have become entrenched. Here, the "ethnic solidarity" described by Hechter does not function as a political force resisting external exploitation but degenerates into an exclusive cartel that excludes the internal weak for the sake of survival. This study traces how this distorted solidarity displaces violence onto migrant workers—the most vulnerable group—through the mechanism of "internalized colonization" as pointed out by Nandy. Furthermore, it reveals that the state's bureaucratic system, rather than controlling this violence, operates as a bio-political mechanism that defines and excludes migrants as "illegal entities" through documentary verification. However, in its conclusion, the study interprets the choice of the older generation to assist the escape of the younger generation, even amidst structural catastrophe, as the manifestation of a new ethical possibility. This constitutes an "ethics of hospitality and send-off" that transcends exclusive communalism bound by blood and region, embracing mutual deficiencies and willing to endure one's own extinction for the flight of the Other. Ultimately, this study is significant in that it seeks to explore the reflective attitudes and methods of alternative solidarity that must be borne by those left behind in vanishing spaces, moving beyond existing discourses that reduce the problem of local extinction to a mere demographic crisis.

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