@article{ART003340715},
author={Juyeon Bae},
title={The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987},
journal={The Journal of Korean drama and theatre},
issn={1225-7729},
year={2026},
number={88},
pages={339-370},
doi={10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339}
TY - JOUR
AU - Juyeon Bae
TI - The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987
JO - The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 88
PB - The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
SP - 339
EP - 370
SN - 1225-7729
AB - This article examines the modes of representing labor and the aesthetics of resistance, focusing on labor documentaries produced after the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. Since the late 1980s, labor documentaries have often been explained in terms of a shift from political practice to aesthetic practice. However, such discussions are limited in that they either separate politics from aesthetics or overlook the aesthetic practices of early labor documentaries. This article seeks to understand the transformations in labor documentaries from the late 1980s to the present as aesthetic practices shaped by changing modes of representing capital and power. In particular, it argues that the modes of labor representation have themselves changed in response to the transformation of capital representation. In other words, as the forms of violence exercised by the state and capital against labor have shifted from visible and direct to invisible and prolonged (‘slow violence’), the modes of representing labor in resistance have likewise undergone transformation. To this end, this article examines labor documentaries produced by university-educated filmmakers around the time of the 1987 Great Workers’ Struggle as well as the works of the Labor News Production Collective, two documentaries connected to the crisis of labor unions and the labor movement in the 1990s, and documentaries since the 2000s addressing issues of precarious labor and industrial accidents. The documentaries discussed here were selected not because they represent the overall tendencies of nearly four decades of labor documentaries, but because they reveal scenes of struggle surrounding visibility and invisibility. Through this analysis, this article argues that the aesthetic practices of contemporary labor documentaries should not be understood simply as a weakening of resistance or as purely self-reflexive aesthetics, but as the result of sustained critical engagement with the problem of representation.
KW - 87eseo 89ro jeonjinhaneun nodongja;Aesthetics of Resistance;Battle Line (Jeonnyeol);Jeonjinhaneun nodongjeonsa;Labor Documentaries;Labor News Production;The Color of Pain (bo-ra);The Three-Legged Crow (Se Bal Kkamagwi);We Are Workers or Not? (Nodongjada Anida)
DO - 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
ER -
Juyeon Bae. (2026). The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, 88, 339-370.
Juyeon Bae. 2026, "The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987", The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, no.88, pp.339-370. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae "The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre 88 pp.339-370 (2026) : 339.
Juyeon Bae. The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. 2026; 88 : 339-370. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae. "The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre no.88(2026) : 339-370.doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae. The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, 88, 339-370. doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae. The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre. 2026; 88 339-370. doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae. The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987. 2026; 88 : 339-370. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
Juyeon Bae. "The Representation of Labor and the Aesthetics of Resistance: A Study on the Transformation in Labor Documentaries since the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre no.88(2026) : 339-370.doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.339
