• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.579-597
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• 2008

This article discusses David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly as a suggestive text for examining Western masculinity in crisis in the post-imperialist age, in which territorial imperialism is no longer valid. Previous scholarship on M. Butterfly has centered around the interlocking dynamics of imperialism, racism and sexism. Such critical attentions focus on how Hwang deconstructs racialized significations of the East and the West. In these discussions, the issue of gender is often addressed merely as a trope to represent the power relations between the East and the West. As such, gender as well as sexuality is highlighted as the very source of subversion of the power relations. My discussion departs from a critique of the gendered trope of the East and the West, highlighting a postmodern agent, the allegedly feminized character Song Lining: a Chinese actor who passes for a woman for political purposes in postcolonial China. Remaining an "inappropriate/d other" in the gendered imperialist discourse, Song becomes an emergent subject, who is capable of playing gender ambiguity for reclaiming a devalued identity, that of homosexual Asian man. Discussing how the central character Rene Gallimard's masculine identity is constructed in a cross-cultural space and how it evolves, I also argue that Gallimard's melancholic death signifies a historical unsustainability of imperialist masculinity in the postmodern/postcolonial age since World War II.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.8
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• pp.100-113
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• 2011

The earlier notion of feminism regarding gender equality was changed into that of Postfeminism because of gender differences. The idea of Postfeminism has been present since the 1980s but has been influenced by modern culture theories such as Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Theory of Power and Discourse and Psychoanalysis. Various features of Postfeminism are found in the medieval warrior images of contemporary fashion. Warrior costumes were men's exclusive property in the medieval ages, but as it is introduced as women's wear in the 21st century, it shows us new fashion images which are constructed by gender deconstruction, differences and pastiche. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to examine a key characteristic of Postfeminism fashion. An article described the historical costumes of medieval warriors and refocused on the development processes of feminism and then conducted an analysis on formative characteristics and Postfeminism tendencies in contemporary women's wear from 2000 to 2011. The results were that materials such as metallic and flexible materials, monotonic and red colors and detailed patterns of armor were used to display forms of exaggeration and restraint. These elements fully and correctly expressed the image of a medieval warrior woman in contemporary fashion. Postfeminism fashion is constructed with feminine power, gendered identity, sensual elegance and a postmodern body. Postfeminism is the contemporary cultural icon and is continuously influencing modern fashion design in the 21st century in a positive and powerful way.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.217-235
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• 2016

Humanities academia and scientific community have been fused together in 21st centurty and it creates new theories and models. Among them, the embodied cognition theory has received attention in several related fields. This study reviews the major metatheories in information user behavior with their limitations. Then, "Life paradigm information behavior model" is suggested as a new theory, which communsurates with new era's request, introducing the embodied cognition theory and the entropy concept. By overcoming the limitations of individual approach to the information retrieval and user behaviors, we expect the discourse of the new integrated information retrieval paradigm.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.263-291
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to see and compare the contemporary Korean-Thai female poems from a feminine standpoint to newly clarify the textuality of their poems. The textuality defined in this manuscript is the text of Korean-Thai contemporary female poems. To newly clarify the textuality of their poems are to go against the existing discussion method and to newly read out the text as re-vision method. This discussion is to analyse deeply how the central exis composing a text which is the identity of woman in a body, appearance of uttrance, or action of abjection is exposed in gender space and to identify the poem's textuality. In other words, through in-depth analysis of the text of poems, which are very complicated as a skein of yarn, place a high value of Korean-Thai female poems. Transcending time, nations and races, if the text of female poem would not free from a biased male-dominated thinking or make a mystery of female poem textuality without critics or tend to be stereotype the text of poem as pathos of female, it would not get out from man-centered reading. To escape from the state of sexual discrimination, the new reading method was seriously analysed and found out that the female text poems not only implicate sexual discrimination but also link to expansive cultural and social structure. And for that reason, this study raise a question to male-dominant sexual discriminated norm. It is very significant that through this elaborate and in-depth text poem analysis, a creation process of female poem is traced. Eventually, the comparative study on Korean-Thai female poems is meaningful and worthy in regard to the contribution to promotion of cultural exchange between korea-Thai two nations and furthermore extend to East Asia to make a basement for the vitalization of Asia comparative literature.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.567-596
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• 2009

A staple of feminist literary anthologies which was instrumental in reevaluating the writer Susan Glaspell, Trifles(1916) has received numerous comments from feminist scholars so far. Most of them tend to concentrate on the themes of female solidarity and justice challenging the androcentric system of law and order. Lacking in the plethora of thematic approaches to the play's feminist subject, however, are formal analyses considering the way in which the play's generic form assists in communicating such thematic concerns of feminism. An alternative to the typical scenario at the courtroom whose mistreatment of women must have loomed large to the young Glaspell as she revisited the old trial of a midwestern murderess which she had covered as a journalist for a local newspaper in Iowa, Trifles serves as a corrective to the courtroom dynamics offering a 'dramatic justice' as opposed to a strictly legal procedure. What this article discovers at the heart of this dramatic justice is the celebration of the unsayable, or what Wolfgang Iser termed negativity, of women's experience which has no room for reflection in the legal discourse at the courtroom tyrannized by the sayable and the evident. Examining how the dramatic form of Trifles gives a voice to the unsayable of woman's experience, which can not be properly represented at the courtroom governed by the straightforward and definitive male rhetoric, the article argues that the play is a better form than its fictional adaptation "A Jury of Her Peers"(1917) in that it syntactically suppresses the monopolizing operation of the verbal by giving precedence to the scenic and non-verbal which is constituted of setting, props, gesture and eye contacts. As a theoretical frame of reference with which to examine the modes of the unsayable in the play the article brings the concept of 'negativity,' defined by Iser as textual effects or modes of the unspeakable and unsaid, into the discussion of the taciturnity of the absent heroine and the non-verbal representation of drama.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.299-320
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• 2015

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland expands scope of Children's Literature genre by introducing the discourse of pleasure as opposed to that of didactic discipline. Carroll's narrative is important, not only for children's literature, but also as a forerunner of post/modernism of James Joyce with its language play and linguistic invention. Its treatment of Alice's body change follows the motif of body transformation in myth and literature. Comparing "stasis" of Susan Sontag's character Alice (James) in her play Alice in Bed and "movement" of Carroll's Alice, this study explores the issues of woman's alienation and the dichotomy of mobility/immobility in reality and in their literary representations. Focusing on a female child's double alienation as woman and child, I argue Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a counter-narrative of alternative bildungsroman. Alice gains her subjectivity through her adventure by power of language and story-telling. Through representation of the dream/adventure of two desiring sisters, Carroll's narrative exhibits subversion of social order and emergence of new order of "chaosmos" out of chaos. As a method of study, this study traces genealogy of "curiosity" in myth and literature as a motivating force that triggers adventure and argues "creative curiosity" is a dynamic energy propelling Alice's adventure.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.76
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• pp.7-30
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to review and criticize the articles that analyzed Frozen by using the semiotic method of Greimas. The study also aims to apply the semiotic method of Greimas correctly to find the deep structure of the narrative of Frozen. The results of the narrative analysis based on the actantial model and the semiotic square show that Frozen is not Elsa's heroic narrative but Anna's one. Because Elsa and Anna are the opposing elements in this narrative, the success of Anna is the failure of Elsa. Frozen does not convey the subversive message about the gender roles by representing an independent and active woman who resists the patriarchal discourse. Instead, Frozen reproduces the conformist ideology by saying that love is the most valuable thing and that everyone should accept the role given to him/her by the community.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.38-59
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• 2011

This study is based on the periodical discourse of women and their costumes, described in modern novels that were published from late 1890s to the 1930s. New cultural phenomena emerged among Korean women in the period of modernization. In particular, rapid increase of jobs for women and preference for western female body shape are very noticeable phenomena that can be observed in novels of the 1930s. In addition, the symbolic meanings of female costumes are variously described in modern novels according to the periodical and spatial environment and jobs for women. The symbolic meanings are organized as 'Trophysm, Expression of sexuality, Liberation from male-dominated society, Symbolic difference between rural and urban areas, Vanity, Decadence, Mechanism tending to hide and Change of values'. And women's costumes kept changing in the boundary of 'Confliction, Coexistence and Harmonization' of traditional and western costumes. 'Confliction' phenomenon got emerged in novels published between 1900 and 1910. The resistance on traditional costumes that restricted woman's life got spread. But western female costumes as a symbol of new culture could not be generalized but accepted as high fashion. 'Coexistence' phenomenon was appeared in novels of the 1920s. At that time, the modernization for traditional costumes by female students was emerged along with trendy fashion. Also, the frequency of using western fashion items was increased in the Korean society. Therefore, it shows that western costumes in the Korean society became popularized in the coexistence with traditional costumes. 'Harmonization' phenomenon was emerged in novels of the 1930s. In the novels, the emergence of western female costumes, personal preference items, and westernized hair style implies that western costumes were absorbed into the Korean society that had kept traditional costumes.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.181-191
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatial structure of director Im Kwon-taek's film , which was released in 1997. The space of the film contains the character and characteristics of the characters, and allows us to understand the contemporary reality and external circumstances surrounding the characters. For this purpose, this study used Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia. The concept of heterotopia defines the character of the era and provides implications for how capital, power, institutions and norms surrounding our lives are being visualized through space. Based on this understanding, this study first dealt with the theoretical considerations of Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia and its meaning. And through this, we investigated the possibility that the space of the film can be defined as a heterotopia. Through the analysis of the film's dialogue, scenes, and editing, the space of the film was divided into a heterotopia of deviation, a heterotopia of resistance impossibility, and a heterotopia of boundaries. The meaning of the film obtained through this analysis is as follows. The woman in the film is passively represented and floating on the border of heterotopia. And the film represent history and memory at the same time, and presents a heterotopia as the arena of competition.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.41
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• pp.1-25
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• 2022

This paper examines whether the dynamic and practical nature of Daoism has a significant relationship with the messianic figure Kang Jeungsan (姜甑山) via Honam (湖南) Daoism's Jinindaemangron (眞人待望論, discourse on awaiting an immortal). To this end, the historical implementation of Daoism's social transformation of consciousness in China and Korea is explored, and then the circumstances of Honam Daoism, in particular, are considered. Following that, analysis turns to the 'Jinindaemangron' in the late Joseon Dynasty that developed in Honam. As a result of the discussion, Daoism's social transformation of consciousness was expressed in China through the anti-establishment activities of the early Daoist groups such as Wudoumidao (五斗米道) and Taipingdao (太平道), movements that sought to build utopias. Throughout this process, the term, zhenren (眞人, 'jinin' in Korean), that originally meant 'master,' was transformed into the idea of a future savior. In the case of Korea, the dynamic and practical nature of Daoism can be found in the preface of Nanrang tombstone (鸞郎碑序) written by Choi Chi-won (崔致遠) which was later inherited by the Danhak sect (丹學派) practitioners who struggled against Buddhist monastics. Additionally, examined is the Docham theory of geomancy (圖讖說) that rose after Goryeo, the prophecy of 'Mokjadeuksul (木子得國說 a Lee clansman shall attain the kingdom)' that appeared thereafter, and the Prophecies of Jeong Gam (鄭鑑錄)'s 'Jinindaemangron' in the Joseon Dynasty. Next, the circumstances of Honam Daoism can be considered with regards ti Choi Chi-won and Doseon (道詵) in ancient times, and it can be confirmed that Nam Gung-du (南宮斗) and Kwon Geuk-jung (權克中) were entangled behind Kang Jeungsan. The close relationship among the Daoist Jeong family of Onyang (溫陽鄭氏), the Koh family of Jangheung (長興 高氏), and Kwon Geuk-jung was also confirmed in this study. Finally, in dealing with the 'Jinindaemangron' of Honam in the late Joseon Dynasty and the birth of Kang Jeungsan, Honam Daoism's intense consciousness of social transformation receives first focus, and this is expressed through Prophecies of Jeong Gam, and the religious ideologies of Donghak (東學) and Namhak (南學). These expressions are analyzed through Song of Gungeul (弓乙歌), composed by Jeongryeom (鄭磏), and through Daesoon Jinrihoe's The Canonical Scripture (典經). As a result, it can be confirmed that the messianic significance of the Kang Jeungsan's advent lay on the basis of the people's desire for an ideal future, which is a notion that had been ripening for several centuries.