• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.175-186
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• 2010

The development and expansion of American style mass media in 1938 created contemporary narratives comparable with the Greek narrative in the past, and one of the leaders is comic book 'Superman.' Although American hegemonism or expansionism was rejected by autonomous independent countries including the Third World nations, the heroic narratives transcending the diverse races and peoples in the U.S. were supported by mass cultures and media and had huge impacts on heroic narratives and various media in many other countries. In particular, 'Superman' occupies an epochal position in the history of comic books as it reinterpreted a universal and contemporary heroic narrative model into a Greek hero and a Christian hero and suggested it visually.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.28
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• pp.27-53
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• 2012

American superhero comics are being produced in numerous different forms for multiple, and cross-platform media. In cinema, films based on superhero comics top the list of all time box office records. The same phenomenon of the 'Invasion of Superhero' is duplicated in Korean box office 2012, however, the korean fans are not familiar with the superheroes from the publication which provides the original source of characters and stories for other superhero related media products. Based on observing the multiple and vastness of world building characteristics of superhero comic, this paper attempts to associate the continuous creative nature and the infinite repetition of superheroes and comic texts with the identity of superhero on ontological level. First, chapter 2 examines how one superhero exists in multiple and different worlds individually by utilizing the concept of 'multi-universe' or 'multiverse' in comic texts. Initially, duplicating a superhero on multiple settings and series destroyed continuity and allowed contradiction and paradox confused narrative as a whole, but it also gave chances for comics to be more vibrant and experimental with their stories and characters. Chapter 3 analyzes the superhero comic texts in the light of repetition, concept developed by french philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and make the argument that the superheroes and texts are not repeated to generate surplus of source for economic utilitarian purposes, but it is, first and foremost, a repetition of creativeness and capability. Many concepts introduced by Deleuze in his early masterpiece, $\acute{e}$rence et R$\acute{e}$p$\acute{e}$tition> are taken to support this argument. Mainly, his critical views on generality of the identity and his effort to replace the Plato's system of representation with vibrant creative, and renewal energy of r$\acute{e}$p$\acute{e}$tition. According to Deleuze, repetition is similar concept, if not identical, to what Nietzsche called the 'eternal return' which allows the return of the Overhuman or the Superhuman, and he extends his idea that the returning Overhuman is the singular simulacre which opposes the generalization of identity, in the likes of Plato's Idea. Thus, the superhero's identity is ever changing, ever returning, and ever renewing Overhuman. The superhero must be repeated to fully actualize his/her existence. Also, based on Deleuze's reading of Bergson's texts on the Virtual, the superhero, for example Superman, is actualization of his/her multiplisit$\acute{e}$, the internally multiple, and differentiated variations from itself. These every Supermans' multiplisit$\acute{e}$ shares common memory, past, and duration, thus the Virtual of Superman. Superman becomes himself only by actualizing the movement and differentiation from these multiplisit$\acute{e}$ in his virtual on the surface of reality. On chapter 4, a popular Korean comic book character Oh, Hae-Sung's r$\acute{e}$p$\acute{e}$tition and multiplist$\acute{e}$ are analyzed, and makes comparison to that of Superman to distinguish the repetition from r$\acute{e}$p$\acute{e}$tition, and multiplicit$\acute{e}$ from diversity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.151-166
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• 2013

In order to create a national myth and be able to control international society, America with her short national history, used popular culture to accomplish these goals. The medium fit this purpose the best was the use of superhero characters based on comics. Born and developed from the 1930s through the 1960s, which could be seen as America's national crisis era, superhero characters were thorough advocates of American justice and was perfect for the role of spreading the legitimacy of American ideology. From the 1970s, superhero characters became part of movies and became even more influential through the Hollywood's massive film industry and the box office success. American ideology in superhero characters symbolically appeared in movie costumes. Starting with Superman and Batman, the very first and typical superhero characters' costumes work as metaphors for realization of American justice. After the 1980s, superheroes were newly developed through a genre called graphic novel and the most representative piece of this genre is Alan Moore's Watchmen. In the Watchmen, which was also turn into a movie in 2009, six changed superhero characters appear ranging from a non-human superhero, villain superhero, superhero with mental disorder and superhero with sexual impotency, the characters were never-seen-before superheroes with different aspects that connote introspection and philosophical ideology. The changed type of heroes and ideology became another form of heroes, and this brought changes to character costumes that were never considered before. The superhero costumes that used to symbolize America now express different types of superhero by borrowing exotic mythical elements, undressing, pastiche and daily life clothes. The superhero characters and their changes in costumes from Watchmen imply American popular culture's introspective tendency. Amongst these changes, we need to raise our critical vision towards popular culture.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.89-110
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• 2016

Since he was an exile, Henry James himself was well aware of agonies as an outsider in either Europe or America. Such an anguish is deftly depicted in the character of Felix Young with James's unique ironic tone. Unlike James, however, Felix is neither affluent nor distinguished as an artist. Nor is he supported by any patron. Furthermore, at first, he doesn't seem to survive the strict joyless environment in New England, but he possesses his own survival value. His unique esthetic value and his beautiful smile enable him to win Gertrude's heart. His adroit balance between pleasure-seeker and respect for American serious culture without hostility ultimately ends up with his marrying Gertrude. His arrival in Boston might pose a threat as Mr. Wentworth fears. Actually he subverts the traditional idea of an artist. He is armed with amiability and frankness, which are incongruous with a stereotypical idea of an artist: a willful, freakish, and self-righteous person. Felix here suggests to us that a new kind of modern art be possible. Gertrude is also a new woman who opposes to staying put under the patriarchal society. She is always wavering in and out of the house, searching for opportunities to quench her curiosity to see the world by breaking the bond of New England. Her ceaseless quest for independent values results in fortuitous encounter with a new species of artist Felix. Unlike Henry James's other novels, in which male characters assume a role of sophisticated "fortune-hunter," the union of Felix and Gertrude in The Europeans represents the compromise between two different cultures. According to Nietzsche, the birth of superman is possible by the union of Athens and Jerusalem. In other words, the matrimony of Felix and Gertrude means the commingling of his liberal arts and Gertrude's moral seriousness might contribute to the birth of the new culture.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.49
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• pp.7-38
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• 2012

This study is an argument that Yeoheon Jang Hyun Gwang's Yeok-Hak-Do-Seol has been on the context of the typical Confucian methodology of self-organization for a sage's or superman's character (爲己之學) and completed the methodology. Therefore the context from Confucius to Southern Song China Era is argued as a context of development and systematization of the methodology. In addition the fact that Zhuxi(朱熹) and his students had systimatization of the methodology with the publications of some important textbooks is also explained. The most stressed thing of this study is Yeoheon's Yeok-Hak-Do-Seol is just the text that succeeded them as the methodology of self-organization and had a special purpose of completion of the methodology not only with comprehensive items of practice but also intuition into the human's life and the world by his mastery of Yeokhak(易學). The viewpoint this study keeps is the Confucian methodology of self-organization is considered for the purpose of development and upholding the Confucian truth, and thus the methodology itself has been regarded as the necessary one that is the closest approximation to a pursuit of Confucian truth. According to this viewpoint we can observe the features of methodology of the pursuit of Confucian truth from the Yeok-Hak-Do-Seol. However the Yeok-Hak-Do-Seol has its purpose merely on a human being's self-organization but also on an enormous enterprise to make the universe peace or sustainability of the world. His stress on the enterprise shows that his methodology is not a merely repetition of the tradition of the Zhuzixue but a creative deveopment of the tradition. The other feature is that his methodology is systematization on the basis of Yeokhak, or the study of Yi-jing(易經). The main method he intensified is easiness and simplification that is the main point which he extracted from Yi-jing as the most important and necessary way of life.