• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.37
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• pp.463-489
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• 2014

Virtually unanimous praise poured over him notwithstanding, critical discussions of Yeon Sang-ho's animation works largely remain amorphous. Except for scattered reviews, no serious work of engagement with his works has yet to exist. In seeking to fill this yawning void, this paper insists his works be treated as oeuvre. By analyzing the two animated features along with his shorts, I will show how radical Yeon's works remain vis-a-vis contemporary Korean society. At their narrative core, his works, I argue, revolve around the problem of solidarity, or lack thereof among the abjected people. In contradistinction to the critical common sense whereby the supposed continuity between the two works is casually bypassed, I insist on the peculiar ways in which both resonate with difference. Further, and perhaps more importantly, I will demonstrate how these otherwise merely thematic concerns are rendered formally in his animated works in terms of what I call "abyssal surface". Despite his allegedly "realistic" style, Yeon's works rather embody the utter lack/excess of trust among the abjected people as animation, i.e., ominously superficial surface beyond whose facade lurks abyssal lack/excess of mutual trust. Precisely in this double sense of the term, i.e., that thematically they touch on the roots of society, and, formally, those of animation as such, Yeon's animation works are radical.

• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.25
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• pp.175-209
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• 2006

This study focuses on Korean-American writer Hong-Eun$(1880{\sim}1951)'s$ American travel gasaes and sis who played an active role under the rule of Japanese imperialism. This study also investigates Hong-Eun's experience and expression on American travel and culture and discusses his changes in stream of consciousness. According to American travel sigaes which were published in the New Koren Times in 1936. 1937, and 1949, his consciousness can be summarized as follows. First travel siga depicts his inner conflict as a refugee who lost one's home country. That is to say. by observing Indians' losing identity and their miserable labor conditions, he developed his own critical eyes on American society. Eventually he missed his country desperately and sought for the ways of his returning there. Second travel sijo reveals his own agony about not be able to return his home country where he could Possibly visit. In other words, after suffering from his agony, it is evident that he started to take positive attitude towards American society and establish his own identity. Based upon Hong-Eun's changes in consciousness as a writer, the researcher hypothesizes that there exists Diaspora-Consciousness in his work. His consciousness is strongly related with his attitude towards his home country whether it Is positive or vice versa. When his home country declared her independence. his attitude towards immigrant society was positively changed, which was quite contradictory from his previous one. In this transition period, not only he accepted American ideology and life, but he re-conceptualized them as a Korean mode. In sum, Hong-Eun's mental traces lie on the core of hybrid and diaspora which Post-Colonial literature values highly of.