• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.695-704
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• 2018

This study attempted literary therapy approach to establish a healthy identity of Korean married immigrant women by using . The research suggests the difficulties of forming a healthy identity in the process of adaptation of Korean marriage imm6igrants to international marriage, and suggests a literary therapeutic alternative using the narrative structure of Ondal tales. In this study, we used the proven narrative, classical literature, to help the marriage migrant women to develop healthy self - narration, and furthermore, the possibility of reestablishing a healthy identity is centered on their human relations. The research suggests that self-narratives can provide a confidence that a happy life can be managed by providing a literary therapeutic alternative to establish a healthy identity. Through this study, it was positively pointed out that married immigrant women can utilize classical literature in their programs for establishing a healthy identity and that they can have an expected effect on their understanding of Korean culture and Korean language ability.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.104-114
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to comprehensively understand and describe the meaning of physical activity for managing menopausal symptoms in middle-aged women. Methods: This study targeted middle-aged women with menopausal symptoms who participated in regular exercise at least three times a week for more than 12 weeks. Nine participants were individually interviewed via in-depth face-to-face interviews, and participatory observation was also employed. Colaizzi's phenomenological qualitative research method was applied for analysis. Results: Participants were asked, "What does it means to participate in physical activity at this time of your life?" Fourteen codes, six themes, and three theme clusters were derived for the meaning of physical activity for managing menopausal symptoms these middle-aged women. The six themes were "reviving the exhausted body and mind," "being free from the yoke of pain," "being settled in life," "finding oneself and becoming altruistic," "striving while anticipating change," and "equipping the body and mind." The three theme clusters were "overcoming my past pain," "taking the initiative for today's life," and "moving towards new change." Conclusion: The narratives revealed that physical activity allowed women to overcome menopausal symptoms, the burden of relationships, and stress, thereby enabling them to make positive changes in their lives and have expectations for the future. Thus, physical activity was a positive force in a healthy menopausal transition for women with menopausal symptoms. The findings of this study can be used to encourage physical activity in peri-menopausal women and to develop physical activity programs for managing menopausal symptoms.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.661-692
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• 2009

From the Darwinian perspective, all the human behaviors and thoughts are operated by "the selfish gene," the term coined by Richard Dawkins, which has long been evolving to survive by utilizing the limited quality and quantity of resources. And an organism which fails to regenerate by creating its "replicator" is doomed to extinction, for gene combinations which help an organism to survive and reproduce tend to also improve the gene's own chances of being passed on through generations. Dawkins also coins the term "meme" for a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such selfish replication may also be the principle for human culture. Ian McEwan is not only a controversial but more importantly influential writer in the 21st century academic world. His 1997 book Enduring Love is not exceptional in that it draws both literary and scientific attention. Intentionally set up with the dynamic conflict between the two cultures, namely art and science, the book explores the way in which the state of the modern minds is misinterpreted and estranged by each other. In this novel, the three main protagonists, Joe, Clarissa, and Jed, each representing the very important three elements of human civilization-cognition/science, emotion/art, and faith/religion-meet an unexpected peril of life. The author of the novel employs the narrative of evolutionary science-in particular the narratives of gene and meme-to provoke the question of the two cultures famously addressed by Snow in the mid 20th century and the further discussions followed by the later Darwinian scholars such as Richard Dawkins. In this paper I aim to illustrate the way in which the author develops the idea of gene science and literature and how he proceeds to provide a sophisticated bridge between the two cultures and induce a kind of consilience by the recurrent name of love in the story of Enduring Love.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.163-183
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• 2012

This paper is one of those attempts to explore some possibility of agreement between feminist discourse and postcolonial discourses through the approach of postcolonial feminism in the reading of the controversial novel, So Far from the Bamboo Grove and Year of Impossible Goodbyes. So Far from the Bamboo Grove, when read from the perspective of postcolonial feminism, reveals 'domestic nationalism' of imperial narratives in which the violence of imperial history in Korea is hidden behind the picture of every day lives of an ordinary Japanese family and Japanese women. Furthermore, postcolonial feminist's perspective interprets Yoko family's nostalgia for their 'home,' Nanam in Korea, as 'imperialist nostalgia' working as a mask to hide the violent history of colonization of Empire. In this way, postcolonial feminist reading of the story detects the ways the narrative of Empire appropriates women, family image and even nostalgia for childhood. At the same time, this perspective explains the readers' empathy for Yoko family's suffering and the concerning women issues caused by wartime rape and sexual violence by defining Yoko as a woman of Japanese Empire, whose life of interstice between imperial men and colonial men cannot be free from violence of rape during anti colonial wars. Year of Impossible Goodbyes as a counter discourse does not overcome the traditional binary opposition of nationalism which quietens gender and class issues. As an attempt to fill in the interstice between the two perspectives of feminism and postcolonialism. postcolonial feminist reading turns out to be a valid tool for the reading of the two novels chosen here.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.307-333
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• 2007

When W. E. B. Du Bois says that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," such a statement clearly recognizes the significance of the issue of racial identity, a cultural phenomenon called 'passing.' Both Johnson in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Larsen in Passing confront this issue. Both novels, using the metaphor of passing, not only trace the racial anxiety and race politics of the time but also expose the unstable landscape of the established social and cultural boundaries of racial identity. Mapping out multiple meanings and various dimensions of passing, this paper argues how Johnson's and Larsen's narratives display the ambivalence of color line while they at the same time complicate, problematize, and destabilize the mainstream racial boundaries and differences. It furthers to delineate how the two writers, with difference, deal with the problem of passing, the significance of racial identity, and black middle class values along with its intraracial differences. Rather than draw a clear definition of and a definitive closure on passing narrative, this paper focuses on its complexities and undecidability, challenging every dimension of its established significations. It also explores the complex dynamic between passing act and individual identity, for passing here is not just a racially signified term but extends its significance to the other factors of identity, such as class and even sexuality. Johnson and Larsen open up a site for a newly emergent, modern racial identity for black middle class in the twentieth century American urban spaces. Both writers, illuminating the subversive and slippery nature of language in their passing narrative, clearly herald new, different forms of Afro-American writings and themes for the different century they face.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.257-281
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• 2012

This study aims to examine individual perceptions and lived experiences of the Net generation of student teachers and the previous generation of teachers about their technology use in education. The participants of this study include 106 pre-service teachers and 50 in-service teachers from one teacher education university in Korea. Employing a mixed methodology, we first empirically examined the participants' perceptions toward multiple variables related to technology use in education, namely (a) past ICT experiences in schools, (b) personal computer use, (c) constructivist belief, (d) computer efficacy, (e) attitude toward computer in education, and (f) prospective computer use. In addition, we conducted face-to-face interviews with selected participants for the in-depth investigation of their lived experiences about technology use, beliefs, and attitude. Results indicate that there are significant differences between in-service and pre-service teachers in their prior experiences with technology in schools. However, the pre-service and in-service teachers did not differ significantly in their beliefs, attitude and other technology-related variables, which may indicate the danger of generational determinism in the Net Generation debate. The analysis of interview narratives revealed two major themes about the interplay of one's agency and structural changes in the participants' lived experiences with technology use in education: (a) transition from negative past experiences to opportunities for positive computer use, and (b) attitudes formation and change through apprenticeship experiences and structural influences. In conclusion, this study suggests that the Net Generation debate should move beyond dichotomous or techno-centric thinking. There is a critical need to pay more attention to develop deeper understandings of the fundamental diversity existing within the generation itself. Implications for teacher education are also discussed.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine the descriptions of the transmission of plague along the Silk Road in Orhan Pamuk's 2022 novel Nights of Plague. Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the first prize for Turkish literature. Pamuk's vast knowledge of epidemiological history, which has long fascinated him, comes to life in this novel as he describes the characters' battles against the plague in the East and West and how the plague was brought to the islands and spread along the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most important trade routes in human history, the Silk Road was not only a link between East and West trade and cultures but also a route for the transmission of bubonic plague during the medieval period onwards. It was this epidemic that contributed to the decline of the Silk Road. In the novel, a plague originating in China strikes the Ottoman coastal cities of Smyrna and Mingheria on its way to Europe via India. The epidemic is contained in Smyrna but the death toll spirals out of control when the plague reaches the island of Mingheria by sea. The spatial setting of the novel is an island, which means that it communicates with the outside world by sea. The only way the plague could have spread to an isolated island was by ship. Rats from different ports and ships would have traveled to other parts of the world or even countries to spread the plague. In Nights of Plague, the fact that the plague reached Mingheria via the maritime Silk Road is also proven by the route of the ships and various narratives. The novel confirms what many scholars have argued, that the Silk Road brought various goods from the East to the Roman Empire, along with deadly diseases, and that the sea routes were an important way for the plague to travel and spread.

• Trans-
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• v.16
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• pp.107-133
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• 2024

Narratives are fundamental to human cognition and social culture, serving as the primary means by which individuals and societies construct meaning, share experiences, and convey cultural and moral values. The field of artificial intelligence, which seeks to mimic human thought and behavior, has long studied story generation and story understanding, and today's Large Language Models are demonstrating remarkable narrative capabilities based on advances in natural language processing. This situation raises a variety of changes and new issues, but a comprehensive discussion of them is hard to find. This paper aims to provide a holistic view of the current state and future changes by exploring the intersections and interactions of human and AI narrative intelligence. This paper begins with a review of multidisciplinary research on the intrinsic relationship between humans and narrative, represented by the term Homo narrans, and then provide a historical overview of how narrative has been studied in the field of AI. This paper then explore the possibilities and limitations of narrative intelligence as revealed by today's Large Language Models, and present three philosophical challenges for understanding the implications of AI with narrative intelligence.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.113-128
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• 2024

This study explored boundaryless characteristics of Posthumanist black color fashion by examining fashion collections from 2018 to 2023 that explicitly incorporated Posthumanist paradigms through literature review and case analysis. Black color fashion reflects key Posthumanist attributes such as dissolution of boundaries in ecology, academia, gender, and Western-centrism. These characteristics are manifested as 'organic expression of nature and technology encompassing the body,' 'robust expression of hybridized imagery,' and 'fusion of Eastern traditional cultural expressions.' In the 'organic expression of nature and technology,' flora and fauna motifs are applied or an advanced technology is employed to realize organic forms, offering an experimental representation of post-anthropocentrism, focusing on avant-garde and sensuous fashion images. 'Robust expression of hybridized imagery' combines masculine body expressions with bold accessories to convey a resistant fashion image to gender identity norms while utilizing traditional male fashion items to present a strong and charismatic image. 'Fusion of Eastern traditional cultural expressions' integrates traditional elements from various Eastern cultures into materials, producing opulent yet ascetic fashion images through designs that can conceal the body's silhouette, reflecting a restrained image of black in Eastern cultures. This study provides a multi-layered interpretation of black color fashion in the Posthuman era, addressing themes such as 'representation of diverse organic life forms, gender fluidity, and challenges to Western-centric narratives,' contributing to a deeper understanding of how fashion interacts with socio-cultural contexts.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.67
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• pp.177-208
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• 2014

This study inquires how human interest news on society section of newspapers had been modulated as multi-layered political narratives that would consistently have Koreans consider, realize and question on colonial situation as well as ethnic identity. Under totalitarian censorship of the colonial government, newspapers could not publish reports on political issues and current affairs, so society page of human interest such as crime, accident, conflict, disaster, and many kinds of sufferings of peoples to death would take great public attention and consequently be considered as a substitute of political section. Society page had enjoyed its influence on formation of public opinion of the colonized ethnic society and had maintained cultural-nationalist position ever since the founding of newspaper in mother-tongue in 1920. In colonial context, there is nothing non-political to the lives of the colonized, social facts would be necessary and happen to be modulated into a narrative that could trigger nationalist sentiment. For this end, news reporting of society section usually concentrated on aspects of 'Les Mis${\acute{e}}$rqbles', dramatic quality, and psychological factors in detail. Narrative style of news reporting got used to modulate factual informations with a proper taste of exaggeration, emotional expression, and commercial touch of exciting words. Even in a case of death by drug abuse, news was written to indicate what made him/her drive to miserable death on street, that is, what is de facto reason of all of social problems like as migration, hunger, leaving home, crime, suicide, violence, gambling, love affairs to death, adultery, and even opium habit. Those social problems and personal sufferings appeared up on newspaper 3rd page at daily base. Readers could acknowledge and identify what the real matter that should be resolved and then blame colonialism, capitalism, and militarism for those social problems. Journalists put values on inciting the colonized to realize the national and ethnic situation and feel sympathy for their people tied up by a common destiny. In this terms, news on society section of newspaper under Colonial Occupation were encoded as narratives of politically layered text and then decoded as intriguing sentiments against colonial dominance. I argue that society page of newspaper of colonial period engaged in a sort of cultural politics of sentiment and emotion which is a private area outside of imperial sight.