• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.603-646
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• 2009

This paper explores in depth Gaston Bachelard's theory of imagination so as to establish the philosophical bases of creativity. While he had begun his studies on imagination to eliminate unreliable subjectivity hampering objectivity of philosophy of science, he was fascinated to become a philosopher of imagination by its unlimited power. Since his theory of imagination marked a prominent spot in the history of Western idea, this paper will seek its significant implications that will also shed light on the philosophical grounds of creativity. The best way to approach his theory is to differentiate whether imagination is the power of forming images or that of transforming them. If not misguided by surface simplicity of the aforementioned differentiation, it will be revealed that it has accrued strata in the history of Western idea. The power of forming images is related to theory of mimesis or of representation, and to ocularcentric and logo-centric structures. Bachelard strongly opposes to the theory of imagination as power of forming images, since, if it is so, its expansion and development are not possible. He thereby constructs the theory of imagination as power of transforming images. The force of movement lies at the core of his theory. Imagination as an ability to intuit movement is directly related to the problem of change in the history of Western idea. If an entity is incessantly changes itself, it becomes a crucial role of imagination to capture the force perse in the perpetual movement without distortedly and abruptly fixing it at a still point of time and space. Bachelard criticizes such a method that makes movement a controllable entity consisting of partitioned moments of space; instead, he constructs theory of imagination that reveals the true power of indispensable movement. Furthermore, it will be revealed that Bachelard's theory has more affinities with Kantian imagination and reflective judgement of aesthetics than the past researches on Bachelard showed. This paper, by means of the above investigation, will transcend the superficiality of defining what are Bachelard's formal, material, and dynamic imaginations; simultaneously, it will bear philosophical conditions of possibility that makes us experience imagination fully. These conditions also become the philosophical foundations of creativity. It will draw to a provisional close its imaginative journey of everlasting movement by making ontological and ethical dimensions of imagination and creativity.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.39
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• pp.59-83
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• 2015

Magical realism, blooming and improving in Latin America, opened the new vision about reality and rationalism, coming out from the out-styled frame of past. While having common points with unrealistic literature, which uses fantastical components, magical realism is different from Surrealism and fantasy literature that is focusing on reality and realizing reality intensely. In the early stage of this research, magical realism was restricted by the characteristics of literature of Latin America, but the research of magical realism is expanding in planning Post-Modernism nowadays. Lately, the influence of magical realism is identified in literatures, arts, films, and animations over the world; according to the research, however, research about magical realism in animations was not done in Korea before. A Korean independent animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword" was evaluated positively in many international film festivals is valuable as the research of magical realism. Throughout this study, this animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword" was analyzed by its narrative and images. The analysis of narrative consists two parts. One is about the form of narrative and the other is about contents through the story. Analysis of Image is also divided into two parts: background image and character image. In this animation, the protagonist is narrating about the fantastic accidents in his life and his own feelings towards it. The narration leads audience to understand his situation and feelings in meta-fiction. On the surface, audience watches the love story of a normal girl and coffee vending machine in this artwork, but deep inside the animation, it is visible that the directors tried to make audiences think about the life of 880,000-won Generation in Korea. The background image was represented as real places in Seoul including the landmark of Seoul, making mimesis of reality in Korea. The character image has two conflicting aspects with reincarnated warrior, Jinyoungyoung and a coffee vending machine. It is a hybrid-character transmogrifying between two characters. Likewise, "A coffee vending machine and its sword" has the characteristics of Korean magical realism through form, content and image. Through analyzing the Korean independent animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword", this research tried to find a way of using factors of fantasy, of representing reality as a dramatic device and of using magical realism of Korean animation for bond of sympathy with audience.