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Published in Maeilshinbo, Yi Hae-jo’s “Wolhagain” is a Sinsoseol that was well received by its readers. This work is seen to have been the first of its kind to deal with the Mexican immigration of Koreans in 1905. The reason why Yi Hae-jo chose the issue of Mexican immigration was to use social interest to draw public attention. At the time that this series was being published, Maeilshinbo often published articles on the Mexican civil war, which was regarded as the first revolution of the 20th century. Since Yi Hae-jo did not intend to reproduce the historical events of the present day, it is easy to find points in “Wolhagain” where the process of immigration and return by the protagonist does not correspond to historical facts. In addition, it denies the legitimacy of the Peasants’ War of 1894 and distorts the political reality of the Korean Empire, which was faced with the crisis of colonization. What is interesting about “Wolhagain” is that it borrows the narrative of the Chinese Jinguqiguan in order to bring about the readers’ response. In the case of Yi Hae-jo’s early works, the whole narrative skeleton was borrowed directly from Jinguqiguan. From around 1910, however, historical events came to be placed at the fore of the narrative, and focus was put on concealing the influence of the Jinguqiguan. On the surface, the intention was to cater to the curiosity of the readers by dealing with the events that attracted the attention of the time. This narrative strategy of narratives is not only deeply connected with the popularization project of Maeilshinbo but also shows the attitude of justifying the colonial order in the process of interpreting historical events.

The notion that the magical world view is no longer valid, and the belief that science can reveal the truth about human beings and the world is built into the novels of Yi Hae-jo, such as Gumageom (驅魔劒), Ssangogjeog (雙玉笛), Hwasegye (花世界). The recognition of science as a means of escaping from the magical world, and of science as a light for expelling ‘evil spirits’ can also be seen in various articles of the Journal of Gihoheunghaghoe-wolbo (畿湖興學會月報), which he edited. It seems that he had encountered a mechanical cosmology or an evolutionary worldview through articles about Western natural science that were accepted through academic journals. The evolutionary worldview or the techniques of the detective story revealed in his novels shows such an influence. However, his novels do not look at human society from the perspective of a natural scientist, as he studies the object but without a ‘final cause’ or metaphysics. Rather, Yi Hae-jo repeatedly showed how the principle of ‘the rewarding of virtue and the punishment of evil’ is realized in the secular world, using the “rule of heaven” (天理) (which supported the view of the neo-Confucian worldview) actively as the power of the plot in his novels. In the novels of Yi Hae-jo, the theory of response between heaven and man based on the neo-Confucian notion of “heaven” (天) is revealed clearly, and the concept of nature (god) which makes moral judgments and punishes frequently appears. The novels of Yi Hae-jo, in which the worldviews of science and Confucianism are mixed, have significance as a response of Confucian intellectuals to Western natural science.

The description of the daily world in the Sinsoseol (the New Novel) has been widely discussed as a crucial achievement in contemporary Korean novels. Such a description is mainly composed of representing localities in a political manner. For instance, by drawing ‘civilized space’ or describing ‘barbaric space’. An important change in relation to space occurred after 1910, which is represented by the frequent usage of the main background as the title of the novel. This signifies a change in the way that space was realized and represented in the Sinsoseol. Such a change was possible due to various reasons, including the experience of new perspectives which took place at the time, the expansion of viewpoints, and the discovery of ‘landscapes’. In the case of Yi Hae-jo, the core spaces that appear in his novels came to be used as the titles from 1910. These novels include Soyangjung, Tangeumdae, and Sohakryung. The vital point in these novels is that despite the suggestion of the area as the core element in continuing the narrative, the inherent political meaning or representation of the locality came to slowly fade away. Furthermore, as these beautiful spots and areas are being suggested as the main space present in the novels, the aesthetic sceneries come to be discovered, which are actively used by the author to reveal the emotional state of the characters. Such emotion forms a new aesthetic/sentimental space as it becomes connected to the aesthetic sceneries. This spatial transformation allows a new discussion on the change of the Sinsoseol after 1910.

Agriculture has been primarily understood from an anthropocentric standpoint with humans being the agents of cultivation and plants the objects of cultivation. This paper regards plants as nonhuman agents in agricultural interactions and presents an alternative perspective by emphasizing that crops had an explicit agenda of making copies of themselves and migrated to new soils using humans as a vehicle for their movement. Rice, wheat, and barley are non-native plants that arrived at the Korean peninsula in prehistory. A number of changes are archaeologically visible since their arrival, such as expansion in site range, increase in community size, shortening of inter-village distances and sedentariness. These changes were immediately beneficial to the reproduction of these crops. This paper demonstrates that the development of prehistoric farming communities is better understood when the changes are envisioned from the plant’s viewpoint and when a discussion on plant materiality is brought into the consideration.

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The 1918 influenza pandemic, commonly known as the Spanish flu, was the worst demographic disaster resulting from a single cause in the 20th century. This influenza lasted from the spring of 1918 toward the end of the First World War to the spring of 1919, and spread widely around the world, resulting in at least 20 million deaths, by some estimates up to over 100 million deaths. Epidemiologically, there were three waves during this period. It was around September 1918, which was the second wave period, when the 1918 influenza pandemic first became known in colonial Korea. It is estimated that influenza was imported to the northern region of the Korean peninsula on the South Manchurian Railway. According to official results announced by the Japanese Government- General of Korea in March 1919, 7,556,693 out of the estimated total population of colonial Korea of 17,057,032 suffered from the influenza pandemic, with 140,527 deaths recorded (at a mortality rate of 0.82%). However, it is likely that the total number of those who contracted the disease and the number of deaths were both greater than the official figures. In 1918, the Japanese Government-General of Korea’s preventive measures against epidemics was based on the military force of the military police centering on the National Police Agency. However, being such a long time for the cause of influenza to be clarified at the time, influenza fell outside the scope of legal regulations and there were no effective preventive measures. The National Police Agency was busy counting the numbers of patients and deaths through house inspections carried out by the military police, and they were unable to handle the influenza pandemic effectively. Korean people witnessed deaths every day due to the incompetence of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, which failed to prevent influenza, and the peninsula had reached the point where people felt the capacity to express a despair that had accumulated over 10 years under military colonial rule.

Lee Yong-sul and Choi Myung-hak were born in Pyeongyang and Hamheung respectively, both of which were key starting points for the Presbyterian missionary movement in North Korea. They studied at a mission school, converted to Christianity, and were strongly influenced by missionary medicine. They were then both accepted at the Severance Union Medical College (SUMC) with medical missionary’s acquaintance. The activities of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) at SUMC had a profound influence on their daily lives and careers. The main objective of the YMCA was Christian mission through social enlightenment and the creation of voluntary activities for rural communities. Although it was not political organization, the YMCA did form a relationship with the March 1st Independence Movement. Consequently, as members of the YMCA, Lee Yong-sul and Choi Myung-hak participated in the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919. The Independence Movement was a turning point in their lives. Whereas Lee Yong-sul graduated from SUMC and went to Peking University Medical College to escape from being arrested, Choi Myung-hak studied at SUMC and Kyoto University after imprisonment. They became professors of SUMC in the 1930s, and took part in the mass education campaign for the health care of YMCA students at SUMC. They opened their clinic in Seoul and Hamheung respectively after resigning professors in the 1940s. However, after the liberation, they each took a different path in life. Lee Yong-sul became the president of the Korean Medical Association and a minister in the Department of Health and Welfare under the U.S. military government. He was a representative of right-wing groups and had adopted a leading role in health administration. After he resigned as minister, he took up the position of president of SUMC. As a director of health administration in Hamgyeong Namdo of North Korea, Choi Myung-hak made every effort to reconstruct health administration. He became the president of Hamheung Medical College and concentrated on the issue of medical education in North Korea. In this role, he had to deal with a serious shortage of talented professors and accept the control and censorship exerted by the North Korean government. They shared a similar view of medical commercialization and nationalization of the medical system, in very different circumstances. They disagreed with medical commercialization and were strongly committed to the nationalization of the medical system. However, their approach was different to that of the left wing’ nationalization of the medical system, which they adapted through progressive ways and means.

This paper focused on the serialized novels Saeoullim and Jipyeongseon by Yom Sangseop, and more specifically on Busan, a place of refuge which became increasingly important in Yom’s novels written in the 1950s. The two novels bring to the fore the everyday life which was quickly reestablished after the wartime scars and wounds were covered up, as well as the closely related wartime reconstruction and aid programs conducted by the United States, also centered in Busan. This is problematic because it not only affects the microscopic level, such as the everyday lives of the characters in the novels, but because it simultaneously transformed Busan into a space strongly immersed in the strong surge of Americanism. On the other hand, the paradox that the United States’ reconstruction and aid efforts took place simultaneously with indiscriminate destruction and massacre at the battlefield cannot be overlooked. Yom reveals this unique characteristic of Busan, of being the only space open to the capitalist world stage led by the hegemonic United States while the north of the 38th parallel remained completely blocked, in his novels. This is in accordance with the issue presented in Hyopung, which is set in Seoul under the U. S. Army Military Government in Korea, through which it can be confirmed that Busan in Yom’s novels written in the 1950s is a space situated in the path of Yom’s journey of crossing the border (defecting to South Korea), which continued since the liberation of Korea, and that Busan also serves as a representative space which reflects the ongoing themes in Yom’s works after the liberation and the Korean war.

This article is a study of The Throne (思悼), which opened to the public in September 2015. The Throne portrayed the tragic death of Crown Prince Sado which took place in 1762. The incident of Prince Sado was recorded in detail in Hanjoongrok. Hanjoongrok is one of the most famous works in Korean literary history. The Throne is an adaptation of history, and also of the classic. So far, studies on film adaptations of history and classics (literature) have usually adopted a comparative approach. This paper, however, analyzes the film through the history of research on Prince Sado and the film making process. The direction of film production is mostly related to the history of research in the case of historical films. The Throne is also a work that reflects the latest research. The Throne succeeded greatly in the box office, with the total audience number exceeding 6 million. The success of The Throne is due to not only the competence of the director, but also all of the parts of film making, including the film industry complex. The production of The Throne was an endeavor that involved huge capital, the investment company, the distributor, and a huge theater chain. The complex also had strong editing power over the film. The invisible hand of the complex has to always be considered in the interpretation of the commercial film.

In this essay, I critically examine Cochrane’s ‘simulation theory of musical expressivity’ (2009) and then propose its expanded version as an enhanced and more comprehensive theory. While Cochrane’s theory, which commits to the ‘low-level’ simulation that concerns the primitive feelings immediately aroused in listeners, elucidates quite successfully the mechanism underlying our recognition of the musical expressivity at the local and cognitively low level, it fails to give an account of the mechanism underlying our recognition of the musical expressivity for cognitively higher emotions which usually needs a considerable span of musical unfolding. In addition, Cochrane’s theory generally overlooks the dynamic interaction between music and listeners and sees listeners as passive beings only to respond to music immediately. I argue that these problems would be solved when we introduce the ‘high-level’ simulation and that we should therefore expand Cochrane’s theory embracing the ‘high-level’ simulation. Ultimately, I argue that ‘the expanded version of a simulation theory of musical expressivity’ as I suggest overcomes successfully not only the problems in Cochrane’s theory but also those in other theories on musical expressivity providing a better account of the mechanism to which those theories fail to give due attention or to offer clarification.

Die Verwandlung der Hauptfigur Wieslers steht im Zentrum des Films Das Leben der Anderen. Zu Beginn des Films wird Wiesler durch eine äußere Kraft angestoßen. Allmählich handelt er freiwillig, und gegen Ende des Films besitzt er eine innere Freiheit, abgesehen von der Öffnung der Mauer und der politischen Vereinigung. Viele Kritiker sind sich darüber einig, dass eine verklärende Humanisierung der Stasi im Zentrum des Films steht. Hierbei kommt der transformativen Kraft der Kunst und Literatur eine gewichtig Rolle zu. Obwohl dieser Artikel ebenfalls hiervon ausgeht, liegt mein Interesse darin, die Ideologie, die durch Wiesler verkörpert wird, im Zusammenhang mit dem Mythos, besonders den politischen Mythen von Ernst Cassirer aufzuzeigen. Nach Cassirer beabsichtigen politische Mythen die totale Destruktion der persönlichen Freiheit. Einen Ausweg, diesem entkommen zu können, sieht er aber in der Kunst. Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt sich zum Ziel, die Auffassung Cassirers durch den Film zu beweisen.

Die Globalisierung erleichtert einerseits Grenzüberschreitungen und vervielfacht Möglichkeiten der Lebensgestaltung sowie Arbeitschancen, verstärkt dabei aber andererseits die Verbreitung von Xenophobie in der Mehrheitsgesellschaft. Auch die deutsche Gesellschaft zeigt ebenfalls angesichts der massenhaften Aufnahme von Flüchtlingen und Gastarbeitern, deren Status sich inzwischen zum Migranten gewandelt hat, Ängste vor den Fremden, vor einer angeblichen ‘Überfremdung’ des Landes. Die Reaktion der Mehrheitsgesellschaft variiert zwischen der Akzeptanz und Ablehnung, abhängig sowohl von ihrer eigenen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Lage der betroffenen Deutschen als auch von der Herkunft der jeweiligen Fremden. Bisher wurde in der Forschung der modernen Xenophobie- Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum der rassistische Aspekt wenig beachtet, vor allem in Bezug auf asiatische Deutsche. Asiatische Fremde erleben rassistisch geprägte Xenophobie in verschiedenen Formen und sehen sich im Alltag mit weit verbreiteten, sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Formen von Diskriminierung und Ausschließung konfrontiert. Heutzutage beginnt die zweite Generation der koreanischen Migranten, deren Eltern meist als Bergarbeiter oder Krankenschwestern nach Deutschland kamen, das Schweigen der Eltern zu brechen und über ihr Leben gegenüber der deutschen Öffentlichkeit zu schreiben: Ein Beispiel dafür ist Martin Hyun. Seine beiden Texten Lautlos — ja, sprachlos — nein: Grenzgänger zwischen Korea und Deutschland (2008) und Ohne Fleiss kein Reis (2012) werden in diesem Beitrag als Ausdruck der Selbstbehauptung und des Empowering der zweiten Generation interpretiert. Die Vertreter der zweiten Generation unterscheiden sich von der ersten Generation durch signifikante Differenzen in ihrer multiplen Identifizierung und Selbstverortung in der deutschen Mehrheitsgesellschaft. Sie erleben in der Familie Konflikte mit den Eltern in ihrer kulturellen und nationalen Identifikation und fühlen sich der deutschen Kultur näher, während sie sich gegenüber der deutschen weißen Mehrheitsgesellschaft durch ihr sichtbar asiatisches Aussehen oft als nicht zugehörig fühlen, obwohl sie kulturell vollkommen integriert sind. Die zweite Generation erhebt in ihrer Reflexion über die Integration den Anspruch, einerseits als vollberechtigter deutscher Mitbürger und Individuum anerkannt zu werden und andererseits durch Solidarität mit den anderen asiatischen Migrantengruppen ihre besondere Existenz zu behaupten. In seinem humorvollen, aber kritischen Stil thematisiert Hyun die Aporie der Assimilation der zweiten Koreaner- Generation zwischen den Wurzeln ihrer Herkunft und der Assimilation in die deutsche Mehrheitsgesellschaft.

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