• English & American cultural studies
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.323-348
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• 2009

Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel When We Were Orphans (2000) tells the story of Christopher Banks, a private detective, who embarks on the ultimate case of his career, the puzzle of his own life. The novel consists of two overall parts, one taking place in London, the other in Shanghai-a division which reveals one of the novel's major themes, the relation between home and abroad. Set in the 1930s, Ishiguro's novel on the one hand contains all the classic ingredients of the so called golden age detective genre-an archetypal English private detective, equipped with fierce deductive skills and a magnifying glass, as well as suspects, criminals, and victims-and yet on the other hand it also deviates in significant ways. In this article, I will attempt to make some links between When We Were Orphans and the genre paradigm of the golden age detective story, arguing that Ishiguro's novel offers an exploration of the genre's ideological connections to a larger historical discourse of imperial nostalgia and decline.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.263-267
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• 2020

In the Japanese colonial period of Korean history, appropriate conclusion often overwhelmed the historical imagination, and also pointed out that it shows a similar pattern in spite of the history detective novel genre that emerged with pointing out the limitations of modern history. Historical facts showing in , the legitimacy of independence based on nationalism, and modern civilization are well known in the historical and cultural contents of the Japanese colonial period. It is the reason why applied in historical and cultural contents, as the history as is for current desire of the public to the imaginary community(nation), and as the history which current social conflicts are reflected. History, historical facts and fiction are intermingled in the contents of history, and it is creating a new 'historical imagination'. As a matter of fact, there is only one fact of the past, but the historical imagination of historical and cultural contents is diverse as there is not one historical fact made by historians. History has not yet gone to the imagination for the future, but writing history through historical and cultural contents will create a 'history of possibilities'.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.18
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• pp.283-314
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• 2009

This paper is an attempt to examine historical drama which change rapidly in the manner of seeing history. Historical records are treated differently unlike in the field of modern history. Now the distinction between historical facts and fictions becomes no longer important. This change is affected by micro history, new cultural history, or post-modern history. History and narrative become interactive each other. In this respect they are no more historical drama. by Han Areum (director Suh Jae-hyung) represents this new trends. Of course, it doesn't suddenly pop up in 2005. It began in by Lee Yoon-Taek, was reinforced in by Kim Tae-Woong, and bloomed in . I intended to search important features of by following three. First is the interest about unimportant persons such as a maid of honor, an eunuch. In , they are the main characters. The author described much about those trivial people revealing the truth in different way of the existence. Second is the way of calling a past. In this piece, the past is not continuous. The past always appears at the stage by the present in the form of split which is imagination, recollection, revival. Third is a mixing genre. Comics, melodrama, and thrillers are all together in . This is a similar phenomenon to historical novel and movie of new trend. Strictly speaking, this piece isn't a history thriller. The accident of lost prince doesn't be treated importantly and the result isn't clear either. In this piece, detective genre is used for a symbol showing that writer pursuits the history, not the event. This represents well the characters of new historical drama because how historical facts are carefully recreated and constructed are important. It's enough to show the possibility to mix genre through comics and melodrama.