• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.505-524
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• 2016

This study examines the ways District 9, a film released in 2009, reworks the sci-fi genre to explore the human encounter with "other" alien populations. Like Avatar, released in the same year, District 9 addresses the tropes of conflict over land and human-alien hybridity and introduces non-humans and aliens, not as invaders, but as objects of human oppression and cruelty. Unlike many other science fiction films where the encounter between humans and non-humans occurs in an unidentifiable future time and location, District 9 crosses genre barriers to engage with urban realism, producing a social critique of contemporary urban population problems. The arrival of aliens in District 9 occurs as part of the recorded human past and the film's action is carried out in the present time in the specifically identified city of Johannesburg. A distinctly anti-Hollywood film that locates the action at the street level, District 9 plays out human anxieties about contact with others by referencing the divisions and conflicts historically attached to South Africa's sprawling metropolis and its current problems of urban poverty and illegal immigrants. Focusing on how this particular urban setting frames the film, the study investigates the ways Blomkamp's sci-fi film about extra-terrestrials presents a curious postcolonial mix of aliens and immigrants surviving in abject conditions in an urban slum and forces a realistic examination of the contemporary social problems faced by South Africa's largest city and by extension other major global cities. The paper also examines the film's representation of the human-alien hybrid and its potential as a force to resist human exploitation of the other. It also claims that though the setting is highly local, District 9 speaks to a wider global audience by making obvious the exploitative practices of profit-seeking multinationals. A sci-fi film that is keen on making a social commentary on urban population conflicts, District 9 resonates with the wider sense of insecurity and fear of others that form the horizon of the uncertain and potentially violent contemporary human world.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.59
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• pp.157-181
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• 2015

This thesis pursued exchanges of Hwangsang with Chusa Family, who existed in the 19th century. What was Chusa to Hwangsang and what was Hwangsang to Chusa? The answer is concluded to the question of which existence Chusa was to Hwangsang but not of which existence Hwangsang was to Chusa. However, disregarding social positions of the nobles and the commoners, brothers of Chusa also cherished Hwangsang and respectfully treated him as a poet at all times. Chusa was a critic who recognized Hwangsang as a successor to Dasan poetics and became a patron of the literary circles on the other hand. Hwangsang's Chinese poems related to Chusa Family are counted as 45 JE 52 SU in total which consist of 31 JE 34 SU in "CHIWONYUGO" and 14 JE 18 SU in "CHIWONSOGO", On the other hand, Chinese poems which Chusa wrote for Hwangsang are only a few pieces shown in "WANDANGJEONJIP". Hwangsang first met three brothers including Chusa in September 1853 when he came up to the capital for the 4th time. Jeong Hak-yeon, the oldest son of Dasan Jeang Yak-yong, played an important role in the whole process that Hwangsang met Chusa's three brothers and was recognized as a poet. As the oldest son of Dasan Family, Jeong Hak-yeon made efforts in various ways for Hwangsang. Hwangsang tried his efforts to exhibit his ability as a poet to Chusa and to get Chusa's introduction of his poetical works. Considering Chusa's importance in then literary circles, the introduction seemed to reflect recognition by the literary circles in the metropolis and it also showed that Hwangsang was no more than an obscure poet in the provincial area. Poetical composition of Hwangsang for Chusa three brothers commonly contained friendship, intimacy and special respect at all times. Seeing from exchange process between Hwangsang and Dasan Family or Chusa Family, it is found that mutual exchanges were actively made in the mid-nineteenth century overcoming regional differentiation between capital and province, or feudalism class distinction of social positions of the nobles and the commoners.