• American Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2019

This paper suggests a genealogy of romance in Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and The Surrendered. A flexible textual performance and literary strategy spanning issues of beauty and love, romance in Lee registers the writer's distinctive diasporic negotiation with sites of departure and arrival, in particular with traumatic histories of the m/other country. Native Speaker resolves the crisis of public immigrant love within the compromise in the domestic melodrama. As Lee turns to the scenes of historical trauma in the twentieth century transpacific, romance becomes a key strategy through which his aestheticized framing and deframing of comfort woman is performed and the Korean War finds odd comfort in the aesthetic energy of perverse care in Italy. Through the dehistoricizing movement outside of the historical into the realm of myth and nostalgia, Lee's diasporic romance breaks away from mandates of representation and works within the excess of mistranslation.

• 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.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.41-66
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• 2019

This paper looks at the readers and publishing strategies of paperback romance novels in the the 1980s based on the 'high-teen' concept. The purpose of this article is to examine the meaning the 'high-teen' concepts as expressed in the media through the publication of paperback romance series in the 1980s. Among paperback romance series, this paper was based on pirated/licensed version of novels published by Harlequin, a Canadian publisher, and the magazine media's advertising promotional phrases that were published targeting the same readers. Since the 1970s, mass media have referred to teenagers as high-teens and called them important consumers. High-teen was a term referring to teenagers in school uniforms, mostly girls, and in the 1980s, 'high-teen' was also introduced as a new consumer market, and the publishing market put forward a number of publishing strategies to attract them. The paperback romance, including , has identified 'high-teen' readers as late-teen girls, sensitive consumers for best-sellers/million-sellers, readers with a tendency to read stories of love, and readers that favor American and Western culture. Since the 1980s, the market for paperback romance has been in the recession, but readers have kept the romance genre alive by accepting and localizing the Harlequin series. With the rise of a new form of media called the 'Web Novel', interest in the romance genre is increasing, and we hope this study will serve as a starting point for a variety of discussions with (women) readers about romance reading/enjoyment.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.616-628
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience on non-selection of romance among college students. A deep understand would lead us to help their adaptation and development. For this, we interviewed 12 people who chose to be single and the data was analyzed by the method of Consensual Qualitative Research. As a result, 6 sub-domains and 27 categories have been drawn under 3 core ideas in total. First, the participants described their non-selection of romance as temporary because they had no one to like. Second, during the non-selection of romance, romance was out of priority due to the situation without composure for participants. Also, they didn't place much value on romantic relationship and perceived the experience of past romance negatively. Third, they were focused on themselves and felt free, and they felt the emptiness of their lover and the importance of their surroundings by not selecting romance. Implications and limitations of current study are discussed.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.45-71
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• 2019

Through the expansion of platforms in the media era, this paper notes the phenomenon in which 'high-teen romance drama,' a genre which had been marginalized in the past, began to re-emerge. It analyzes the 'high-teen romance drama,' which is moving from TV to the Web and being produced in various ways, while successfully returning to the TV drama format. This study sums up the latest trends in TV and web-based high-teen romance dramas, and as a case study, this paper examines the characteristics of the 'high-teen romance drama' in relation to the platform's environment through the web drama A-Teen, TV drama 18 Moment. Due to the restriction of ratings, high-teen romance dramas have been one of the largely marginalized genres on television. But in the web space, high-teen romance dramas are no longer non-mainstream. The high-teen romance drama has been solidifying its position through the Web, with absolute support from young viewers. Web dramas are gradually expanding their influence on the genre and subject of TV dramas. The high-teen romance drama is one of the most prominent examples of this trend. The popular interest and success of the high-teen romance web drama has brought the forgotten high-teen romance drama back to TV. The web drama A-Teen is a high-teen romance drama about everyday life and love of high school students, and became one of the most popular and popular web dramas, leading to a Season 2. A-Teen actively utilizes teenage culture and expression, and a strategy that leads to empathy among teenage viewers. In A-Teen, love is recreated in a way that relieves the depth of overconsumption emotions. Instead of dealing in depth with the inner conflict over love, it takes an approach ofpresenting the emotional change of love in real time and forming a consensus with the acceptor. The TV drama 18 Moment is one of the programs that has helped refocus attention to TV-hitting romance dramas. 18 Moment underlines the growth of the characters, with the main characters reaching maturity through love as fresh and innocent teenagers. The TV drama 18 Moment is a high-teen romance drama that has been transformed into a way to apply the web-fadding high-times grammar while retaining the typicality of existing TV hagwons to suit the TV broadcasting environment. As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, video content is changing based on the newly emerging platforms. Dramas no longer mean just traditional television media. While considering the limitations of TV, this paper analyzed the background of the rebirth of the high-teen romance drama, which had been marginalized, through the web platform. This is meaningful in that it identifies and considers the increasing popularity of this genre of drama.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.135-150
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• 2018

Focusing on the hermeneutic instability of a key word of Paradise Lost, "wander," this study attempts to situate John Milton's early modern epic in the longue $dur{\acute{e}}e$ historical transition from seignorial to capitalist mode of production, especially the displacement and reorganization of producer population, a corollary of early phase of modernization. The historic experience of vagrancy and its normalization, and the concomitant shift of the primary human sociability from given to voluntary bonds, I suggest, shape and inform Milton's early modern rewriting of the Biblical story of the fall and his revising of the heroic epic romance into a plebeian romance of a wandering, companionate couple. While building on the critical consensus on this poem's deliberate distancing from the tradition of classical epic and chivalric romance, this essay argues that Milton re-appropriates and re-channels the aspirational aspect of chivalric wandering, or mobility, for his plebeian heroes, a companionate conjugal couple. The hermeneutic instability of the word wander, this essay suggests, captures the duality of the historic experience of vagrancy, both the tragic experience of displacement and the liberational and uplifting dimension of that experience.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.67-99
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• 2019

This paper analyzed romance novels imported into Korea in the 1980s and examined the traits of Korean girls' culture at that time. To this end, This paper chose as subjects the series of 'high-teen romance' published by Samjungdang, 'princess bestseller' by Seoul Publishing and the 'silhouette romance' by Joongang Ilbo in the 1980s. Through the aspects of the paperback romances, the traits of the artist, the content of the work, and the response of the reader, this paper analyzed the position and affection of romance as a genre in Korean culture in the 1980s. In the 1980s, most of the paperback romances available in Korea were translations of the modern and progressive present lines of Harlequin Enterprise's category romance. There were also many writers who were mostly introduced with progressive characters like Charlotte Lamb. The Harlequin romance depicts a story of sensual love. These translated 1980s paperback romance novels allowed girls in Korea to freely imagine the problems of sex and love. In particular, it showed a new perspective on women's sexuality. In Korean love novels, the sexuality of women was treated as an object for the gaze of men. The novels of female writers as college student who criticized this dealt with women's sexuality, but focused on criticism and resistance to the ideology of chastity. The paperback romance made it possible for women to freely enjoy their sexuality by escaping the ethical standards of reality. In addition, the paperback romance was an escape from the frustration of love. Romantic love in Korean love novels did not lead to the unification of mind and body, and always ended in tragedy. On the contrary, the paperback romance started with the fear of the girl who felt love for the first time, showed the process of winning over anxiety, confirming love and reaching a happy marriage. Through this, girls understood general love that was not subordinated to the ideology of chastity, and accepted love positively. The process of establishing romance as a genre in Korean culture and the traits of its readers have not yet been sufficiently clarified yet. This paper compared the romance genre with the other love novels of the day, explaining the position and meaning of the romance genre in Korean culture in the 1980s. Through this, we were able to chart the historical development of the Korean romance genre.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.123-153
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• 2020

As the importance of documented fact has weakened in historical dramas, the combination with other genres has become prominent. By reviewing the way romance is dealt with in historical dramas, this research examines how the properties of historical events adopted by historical dramas are related to the motif of love, and how the narrative of love and romance contributes to the historical effects, with a focus on the television drama Mr. Sunshine. Mr. Sunshine is the first historical drama written by Kim Eun-sook, combining deliberately rearranged history with the writer's unique grammar of romance. The failed resistance movement of the righteous army in the drama is matched with the love that cannot be achieved based on self-negation. The drama, which deals with the tyranny of Japanese imperialism and the independence of Joseon, fictionalizes key characters and events, transforming the desire of love into the passion of patriotism. Romance in Mr. Sunshine serves as a catalyst for emphasizing the tragedy of historical events and reconstitutes cultural memories. In historical dramas, the fictional plot of romance leads viewers to reflect on human life in history that flows from the past to the future. How does an individual's inner feelings contribute to the historical representation? This research is significant as it is the first attempt to examine the relationship between historical drama and romance in various ways.

• 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.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.19
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• pp.127-147
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• 2010

Lee Chan's early poems were defined as the world of romance. His second-term poems were defined as proletarian poetry and poems written in prison when he made the romance as the core point through longing and desire for lost world. Maximizing the romance was proletarian poetry. His third-term poems were feelings of the northern countries called the spirit of Lee Chan's poems. He recognized the emotion of diaspora as the tragedy in these poems. It was remarkable time that the poet's tragedy observing and expressing the reality of colony. Afterward he wrote poems related inside withdrawal and war cooperation, finally he wrote poem after defecting to North Korea. Lee Chan showed the romance of desire in early poems and proletarian poems. Then he indicated acute scenery of the tragedy in the late 1930s' poems. In heavy situation, he moved from pro-Japanese literature to North Korean literature. However he didn't throw introspected self-reflection language to himself each his changing. But through several form of garden, he clearly showed consistent of maximizing his utopia sense. The time Lee Chan experienced was an icon which intensively indicated several features of deformed modern Korean poetic history. He was a unique poet who expressed various traces of modern Korean poetry in short time step by step. His path informed that he was a special poet who stepped the trace of many modern Korean poetry's extremes such as romantic poetry, proletarian poetry, prison poetry, pro-Japanese poetry and North Korean poetry. Likewise we can call his life as a grudge return. Because he left hometown, experienced the light and darkness of modern times and returned his hometown.