• 영어영문학
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.1035-1056
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• 2009

Korean adoptee narratives have proliferated over the last ten years as adopted Koreans have begun to represent their own experiences of violent dislocation, displacement and loss in various forms of literary and artistic works, including poems, autobiographical works, novels, documentaries and films. These narratives by Korean adoptees have intervened in the current diaspora discourse to question further the traditional categories of race, ethnicity, culture and nation by representing the unique experiences of the forced and involuntary migration of adopted Koreans. For a long time, the adoption discourse has been mostly constructed from the perspectives of adoptive parents. Therefore the voice of adoptees as well as that of the birth mothers have not been properly heard or represented in adoption discourse. According to Hosu Kim, the U. S. adoption discourse, feeling pressured to deal with the stigma of the commodification of children, changed from viewing the adoptees as children who had been rescued from poverty and abandonment to considering them as a gift from the birth mothers. With the emergence of the gift rhetoric in transnational adoption, the birth mothers erased from adoption discourse have begun to be acknowledged as one of the central characters in the adoption triad. If Korean adoptees are the "the ghostly children of Korean history," the birth mothers are their "ghostly doubles" who "bear the mark of a repressed national trauma." Somebody's Daughter represents the female experiences of becoming an adopted child and of being a birth mother. In particular, the novel makes a birth mother, the forgotten presence in adoptee narratives, into a central figure in the triangular relationship created by international adoption. The novel historicizes the experiences of a Korean adoptee growing up in America as well as those of a mother who had suffered silently from feelings of unbearable loss, guilt, grief and from unforgettable memories. In addition, narrating the birth mother's story is a way to give humanity back to these forgotten women in Korean adoption history. Revisiting the site of loss both for a mother and a daughter through the novel is an act of collective mourning. The narratives about and by Korean adoptees force Korean intellectuals to reflect seriously upon Korean society and its underlying ideology which prevents a woman from mothering her own baby, and to take an ethical and political stand on this current social and political issue.

• 영어영문학
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.1067-1090
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• 2010

The epistolary novel, as developed and refined by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), is concerned with distinctly private experience and the morality of individuals-Richardson's heroine writers. In contrast to nineteenth-century novels, which explore their subjects through the overview of a narrator with a singular moral outlook, the epistolary narrative allows Richardson to examine the various different ways in which individuals/heroines interpret, mold, and respond to their experiences in writing. In this paper, I argue that the authorial voice of Richardson does not control the narrative but rather is present in the prefaces, character sketches, notes and occasional interjections between letters. Although there is little doubt as to whether Richardson intended to make a particular moral point or attempted to control the effect of his novels on his readers, the heroines and their letters dominate the novels so that they put the authorial suggestions in a different light, reducing the author's to one voice among several. Thus, Pamela's letters are exemplary for the vigor and intelligence with which they appear to be written, rather than for the imposed morality of their ghost writer-Richardson. Although Clarissa is of a different social class from Pamela, both heroines are united in their oppression as victims of a patriarchal society. In Clarissa's letters, the heroine's situation and experience are seen through her own writing in dialogue with that of her confidante Anna Howe, and in contrast to the writing of her oppressors. Clarissa, then, becomes a struggle between different discourses in which their genesis and effect, and the societies and individuals from which they come are implicitly suggested in Richardson's text. While Richardson may or may not be guilty of taking the writing of women and using it for his own ends, his epistolary novels represent a deliberate and bold attempt to shape the novel in a way conducive to his heroines and to women writers.

• 영어영문학
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.597-618
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• 2009

Leslie Marmon Silko, in her novel Gardens in the Dunes, primarily focuses on revealing the white colonialists' plan to exterminate and destroy American Indians and their culture. In this regard, this novel is clearly an Indian counter narrative to interrogate and abrogate the authority of the oppressive and destructive discourse of the whites who are full of colonialist impulses to sterilize Indians and their culture. However, it should be noted that Silko is very careful not to insist on cultural exclusivism and reverse ethnocentrism, since these only mean a return to the violent colonialists' discourse based on dualism and cultural authenticity which, she believes, has led to the marginalization and eventual deterioration of Indians and their culture. White values and culture are something to recognize and tolerate as long as they are not the products of witchery, also known as the destroyer or evil for Silko, which promotes disruption and antagonism between races and classes. As she reveals in her interview, her major concern in the novel is to dismantle political and/or racial distinctions like Native Americans versus EuroAmericans and thus to enhance the idea of the reconciliation and coexistence of whites and Indians. Silko's Gardens in the Dunes can be regarded as an experiment in the possibility of the universal and homogeneous (at least in its roots) global culture which tolerates all forms of culture. Global culture does not mean a uniform totalitarian culture but a vision of a harmonious world characterized by hybridity and heterogeneity, in which different cultures associate freely without the notion of inferiority or superiority of any one culture. Silko's belief in syncretism emphasizes the spirit of tolerance and exchange between different cultures, dismantling the authority of exclusive ethnocentrism. The ultimate message implied in Gardens in the Dunes is that the syncretic spirit is not only an effective means to correct the white colonialists' hegemonic desire aimed at the extermination of Indians and their culture but also a source of energy for the life and prosperity of modern Indians and their societies.

• 영어영문학
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• 제56권2호
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• pp.277-299
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• 2010

This study explores Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider (1987) from ecological and postcolonial perspectives. Ihimaera is one of the prominent Maori writers who have critically voiced their concerns about the fragmentation of Maori tradition and the alienation of an environmentally friendly culture in New Zealand. Throughout the novel The Whale Rider, with his mythic imagination and cultural sensitivity, Ihimaera raises ecological awareness in terms of environmental justice and promotes critical consciousness regarding sociocultural and histo-political realities of the Maori people as alienated others in their ancestors' land. Revolving around the developmental process of a young Maori girl named after a mythical Maori ancestor Kahutia Te Rangi also known as the Whale Rider to inherit the Maori leadership, the novel describes the historical, cultural, emotional landscape of the Maori community in the white-centered society of New Zealand. In particular, this paper analyzes the leaving and homing process of narrator Rawiri which is deeply embedded in Maori myth and philosophy toward an eco-friendly culture and postcolonial reality. Indeed, Ihimaera skillfully juxtaposes young man Rawiri's experience outside the Maori community and young girl Kahu's life at the Maori home. In the end, while Kahu achieves her destiny in a mythical way to foster a new vision of harmonious co-existence that is rooted in Maori heritage and compatible with Western culture, Rawiri comes to understand the interrelatedness of all existence and embraces both the rational knowledge of scientific empiricism and the traditional knowledge of spiritual experiences. The novel The Whale Rider was also turned into a film by New Zealand's most influential female film director Niki Caro in 2002, and the film Whale Rider received international acclaim.

• 영어영문학
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• 제56권2호
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• pp.383-408
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• 2010

This paper intends to suggest the positive, ecological vision of sustainability in Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust that Billie Jo Kelby recovers herself through her readjustment of interior consciousness and outer environment in her tragic situations caused by the Dust Bowl. In spite of her desires for happiness and affluence of home, she loses her mother and brother, and her musical talent as a pianist, and lies in self-abandonment. But she finally raises up herself with her courage and patience, reconciliating with the nature and ameliorating the community by taking care of the devastated landscapes. Hence it is appropriate to approach the loss-recovery process of nature and consciousness with ecological solutions, The Dust Bowl breaks down human mind and body, and eventually leads to the situations of despairs and death. Hesse proposes the primary solution that humans should reconstruct their interior consciousness and participate in recovering the nature because humans are inevitably linked with nature. In this novel, the nature takes a dynamic and active role as a catalyst, reconciling the self with other humans and settling with the conflicting situations in history and culture. This verse novel as an active, self-ordering, and corrective process gives the more intense ecological message. As Hesse defines the setting of Dirty Thirties as a channel of energy, she creates the utmost effects of ecological process that human and environment are part of a total situation, representing the transactional formulation, each conditioned by conditioning to the other. Therefore Billie Jo takes her part as an interpreter and actualizes herself, understanding the nature with metaphor and symbol. Eventually Billie Jo realizes that she should rebuild her environment not out of the dust but in the dust, accepting the reality of Dust Bowl.

• 한국지능시스템학회논문지
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.474-479
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• 2003

In this paper, we proposed the novel method for the recognition of English calling cards by using the projection method and the enhanced RBF (Radial Basis Function) network. The recognition of calling cards consists of the extraction phase of character areas and the recognition phase of extracted characters. In the extraction phase, first of all, noises are removed from the images of calling cards, and the feature areas including character strings are separated from the calling card images by using the horizontal smearing method and the 8-directional contour tracking method. And using the image projection method, the feature areas are split into the areas of individual characters. We also proposed the enhanced RBF network that organizes the middle layer effectively by using the enhanced ART1 neural network adjusting the vigilance threshold dynamically according to the homogeneity between patterns. In the recognition phase, the proposed neural network is applied to recognize individual characters. Our experiment result showed that the proposed recognition algorithm has higher success rate of recognition and faster learning time than the existing neural network based recognition.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.595-617
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• 2010

This paper proposes a novel of a personalized Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) system based on learner's cognitive abilities related to foreign language proficiency. In this CALL system, a strategy of retrieval learning, a method of learning memory cycle, and a method of repeated learning are applied for effective vocabulary memorization. The system is designed to offer personalized learning based on cognitive abilities related to the human language process. For this, the proposed CALL system has a cognitive diagnosis module which can measure five types of cognitive abilities. The results of this diagnosis are used to create dynamic learning scenarios for personalized learning and to evaluate user performance in the learning. This system is also designed in order to have users be able to create learning word lists and to share them simply with various functions based on open APIs. Additionally, through experiments, it has shown that this system helps students to learn English vocabulary effectively and enhances their foreign language skills.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.171-194
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• 2005

The essay attempts at a critical reading of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) in terms of character and socio-cultural change. Juxtaposing the story of Michael Henchard's career with the social and economic changes in the agricultural town, it attempts to elaborate on the complex ways in which Hardy relates the old modes of life and thinking to the material culture. Though the novel is centered on the story of Henchard, the Henchard-Farfrae clash represents the conflict of "old" and "new" modes of socio-economic organization and consciousness. The story of the rustic man of character struggling with his contradictory traits of strong will-power and emotional collapse suggests that Hardy's literary representation of the rural community and the rustic protagonist is deeply rooted in historical reality. However, while there is the interlocking of the changes in personal fate and social change, the representation is a "reinvented" literary construction with complex mediation. Despite the narrator's emphasis on Henchard's immutability, peculiarity, and resilience, his character is, in a complex, mediated way, shaped by the material conditions of English rural community in the late 19th century. The mediating role of Elizabeth-Jane as a narrative resolution embodies Hardy's ambivalent historical position concerning the period undergoing change and conflict.

• 영어영문학
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• 제56권4호
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• pp.575-596
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• 2010

The modes of narratives and communication have expanded due to social and cultural changes and technological development. Thus texts have become multimodal and media hybridities and media crossover have been increasing as well. Multimodality requires new literacy to understand and interpret those multimodal texts other than existing traditional literacy approaches. The New London Group (2000) argues that multiliteracies are needed to serve today's changing multimodal texts. Kress (2003) also argues, visual texts have been prevailing, being mingled with other modes of texts such as linguistic, audio, gestural, and spatial modes. Literary texts are not exception in this trend of multimodality. The recent renaissance of comics, in particular, the new light on graphic novels can be interpreted in this historical vein. In comparison to comics, no consensus has been made in defining graphic novels, however, many studies have been recently conducted in order to look into the potential of graphic novels in building multiliteracies. In this paper, the graphic novel as a literary genre are explored from a histocial perspective and the definition of graphic novels was attempted to be made. In the light of multiliteracies, this paper presented cases that show how graphic novels can be utilized to build multiliteracies. Lastly, the use of graphic novels for English as a foreign language was introduced as well. The author hopes that at the age of multimodality, the potential graphic novels have in language and literacy education can be taken into account by language teachers and students in expanding their territory of literacy.

• 영어영문학
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• 제64권3호
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• pp.415-432
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• 2018

This essay reinterprets Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness as satirical writing. In an experience-based fictional world, Conrad places imperial precursors who present themselves with a derogatory demeanor that stems from corrupt rapacity at its forefront. This rapacity is enabled by what European colonists believe to be a noble cause, regarded as a vehicle with which to enlighten African continent in his work. This essay reads this noble cause that allows such exorbitant and corrupt rapacity as a dominant element in the construction of Conrad's characters, particularly Kurtz, as objects of satire. Kurtz ends up beginning his calamitous descent into barbarism, mockingly quite opposite to what the colonial disciples misconceive themselves to be. In exhuming the satirical elements from the novel, this paper proves the significance of reading The Heart of Darkness as satire as an alternative reading to the racist book Chinua Achebe has accused it of.