• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.583-591
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• 2018

Increasing rate of late or deferred marriage in our society may have been inferred from alleged contribution of media use on people's idealistic expectations about marriage. This study examined the relationship between Korean-Chinese romance drama viewing and various sub-concepts of idealistic fantasy about marriage. Results from survey analysis indicate that although romance drama viewing has a positive association with life satisfaction, it was positively associated with various aspects of idealistic marriage fantasy (i.e., less materialism in marriage, more belief in love at first sight, and more unrealistic expectations on marriage). Further, differential cultivation effects of Korea and Chinese romance dramas were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.223-236
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• 1997

One faces four major developmental tasks to achieve in young adulthood, ages between 20 and 40 : intimacy, vocation, marriage and child-rearing. Intimacy is the capacity to commit oneself to concrete affiliations and partnerships and to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments, even though they call for significant sacrifices and compromises. Through vocation and marriage young adults become united to networks of persons, find tasks that demand involvement, and gain roles into which they fit and are fitted and which help define their identities. An occupation represents much more than a set of skills and functions : it means a way of life. The extent of vocational choice increases with educational level, and the unconscious factors are frequency the decisive element. The vocational choice stare with fantasy choices in childhood, passes through tentative choices in adolescence, realistic choices in college days, and crystallized choices in post-college days, and finally ends up to the choice of specification. Along with the hazards and the need for realignment of personality functioning, the marriage brings with it new opportunities for self-fulfillment and completion. Motives other than a romantic love gain more importance in the decision to marry and in the choice of a partner. The impulsions to marry are sexual gratification, the desire to propagate, narcissistic gratification, and a need of interdependence. Many factors such as oedipal wishes, sexuality and sexual attractions, socio-economic classes, and geography involve in selection of marriage partner. There are also various motivations to marry a romantic love, the desire for a home of one's own, sexual attractions, the wish for security and a shelter, and the wish for children. The hostile marriage, the marriage on the rebound, the marriage rooted in rescue fantasies, and sado-masochistic marriage are the examples of pathological marriages. A successful marriage will usually both Lead to and require a marked reorganization of the personality structure of each partner that will influence the lurker personality development of each. Many marital problems are largely dependent upon the personality characteristics of one partner which might well create difficulties no manor who was the spouse.

• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.34
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• pp.41-74
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate the narrative strategy and meaning of fantasy in classic novels and to derive the educational meaning from the fantasy of Sukhyangjeon. This study selected Sukhyangjeon because is considered a suitable literary text that embodies characteristics of fantasy inherent in classical novels through its successful portrayal of the fantasy genre and its high popularity during its time. Specifically, this study observed that the "notice of hardships" which repeatedly appears in the narration of Sukhyangjeon reinforces the fantasy of the novel as it serves as an advance notice of intervention from heaven. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between the notice of hardships and fantasy by focusing on Sukhyang's life. The way in which the "notice of hardships" is a form of illusion realized it evident in the plot when heaven saves Sukhyang from her hardship even though it was heaven that had granted her those forms of hardship. Firstly, the "notice from heaven" constitutes the macro structure of Sukhyangjeon. Through it, readers realize the enormous power of heaven by seeing how Sukhyang's life has been realized in accordance with heaven's notice with that, it evokes a sense of respect to heaven. In addition, heaven saves Sukhyang from different forms of danger. It enhances a miraculous feeling, which the omnipotent power of heaven shows, against the innocent appearance of Sukhyang during her times of danger. Meanwhile, when heaven notifies Sukhyang and the surrounding people of their fate and subsequently realizes it through dreams, this act creates a mysterious atmosphere and improves the probability of the narrative. If so, the narrative meaning in reinforcing the fantasy of the novel by the use of "notice of hardships" could be revealed through Sukhyang's real life. First, the hardship in which Sukhyang has gone through is so realistic and detailed that the readers' feelings of empathy are evoked with the fear of the coming hardship, wailing together, and trying to resolve the inner anxiety through Sukhyang's happiness. Second, the heavenly beings who are touched by the good behaviors of Sukhyang save her from the dangers of death. This creates the belief in readers that heaven intervenes for the good people. Third, the active attitude that Sukhyang and Leesun show in the process of marriage helps them overcome their earthly hardship and preserve their relationship in heaven. This gives readers hope that they could go to a "higher life" after going through suffering. This fantasy of Sukhyangjeon helps readers overcome their anxieties of reality through fantasy and recognizes the importance of relationships to enhance a sense of unity and solidarity with others. Because of these elements, it is expected that the fantasy of Sukhyangjeon will have a meaningful value to modern readers.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.349-383
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• 2019

This paper examined the meaning and task of romance research with a focus on Reading the Romance(1984) by Janice A. Radway. This book, which analyzes romance texts by examining the situation and meaning of reading romance by women readers integrating between cultural studies and literary studies, is one of the most popular studies on the romance genre. Radway scrutinized the practical significance of reading romance in a community of women readers. Through a study involving questionnaires and in-depth interviews, she found that for women, romance reading is a 'compensatory fiction' that brings happiness and emotional redemption through a sense of liberation achieved by escaping from patriarchal daily life. The romance that women prefer is composed of 4 stages and 13 divisions: 'Encounter → Attest → Recovery → Happy End'. It also maintains a formula that begins with an immature female character's identity crisis and ends with a blissful union that recognizes the intrinsic value of the main character, who has turned into a man who is considerate of the women. Therefore, romance plays the role of pursuit of the 'female utopian fantasy' and at the same time a reconciliation of women to patriarchy. Feminist critics of the day criticized this argument. However, reading romance is a 'feminine reading', and romance is literature about the functional relationship between women's lives and patriarchy. Yet the interpretation could differ depending on the different viewpoints and definitions of the women's utopian fantasy. In recent years, the conditions of female reader's lives, awareness and imagination have been changing rapidly. As a result, the female utopian fantasy has also changed significantly. Nevertheless, women's lives in the real patriarchal system are still contradictory, and their adventurous imagination is spreading in alternative spaces such as the subculture. In this regard, the question is about the definition of romance and the meanings of romance research are still important task.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.202-212
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is at clarifying what the genre oriented characteristics of virtual reality programs are. For this, the tests of 'We Are Married' being broadcasted in 'Sunday, Sunday Night' Part 1 of MBC from episode 1 to 8. As a result of analysis, this program was mixing together virtuality and reality by placing the image of virtual couple's life and presentness of entertainers existing in reality appearing at the studio. Also, it was forming sympathy with users as it satisfies fantasy and sense of reality toward marriage by the entertainer couples showing love and conflict that may happen between real couples after setting various categories of couple types. Also, through the device for the public space to confess private feelings through television, it shows the boundary between public domain and private domain breaking up. Along with this, it has implemented amusement characteristics by inspiring enjoyment of users by a substituted satisfaction through various forms of impressions presented to spouse such as materials, effort, gesture or language, etc. Accordingly, the virtual reality program shows authenticity, fiction and amusement by being mixed together and we can see that such genre oriented characteristics act as important strategy appealing to users based on breakup of boundary and genre oriented ambiguity.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1103-1122
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• 2009

In this essay, I compare the ways in which the mid-thirteenth century English romance, Floris and Blancheflour, represents relationships of the Spanish pagan queen to her adoptive Christian daughter who becomes her daughter-in-law, with the ways in which Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale and other so-called Constance romances delineate relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. What draws me into these romances is the fact that they both convey the intergenerational relationships of women. However, the texts become distinct from each other in the way in which each depicts women characters and their relationships with one another. In this paper, I argue that the level of intimacy that the mother-in-law figure has with the daughter-in-law figure plays a defining role in making the former perform her agency for or against the latter. In the Man of Law's Tale and other Constance romances, the daughter-in-law figure is in every sense an alien or 'outsider' to the mother-in-law figure. To the contrary, Blancheflour in Floris is a sort of 'insider' to the queen because they lived in the same household for fourteen years-ever since the girl's birth. The queen, therefore, should have a high degree of intimacy with Blancheflour. I argue that the pagan queen's intimacy to the daughter of a Christian-European captive has enabled the queen to protect the girl as her adoptive daughter first and as a daughter-in-law second, namely contributing to her unreserved endorsement of the inter-racial-religious-class union between her only son, Floris, and Blancheflour. This is one major factor that distinguishes the relationship of the queen and Blancheflour in Floris from the dysfunctional relationships of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in the late medieval Constance romances, where women of different generations are strangers to each other, and no way is imagined for women of different races and religions to get along with each other.