• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.54
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• pp.5-31
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• 2011

In this paper, the news coverage of Chosun Art Exhibition(鮮展) in the Japanese occupational era were analyzed by the discourse analysis technique. Japan was advocated the slogan of 'escape from the asia go to the west' and calls itself as western civilized nations during Japanese occupational era. Japan's colonial rule in Asia has created a Japanese orientalism that Japan is considered as developed, and the other Asian countries are considered underdeveloped countries. The media discourse of Chosun Art Exhibition make to believe that the 'backwardness' of Korean local color arts, unlike the 'colonial superiority' of Japanese arts. In the analysis of the newspapers, Maeil Shinbo and Donga Ilbo, Japan recognize Korean arts as the 'assimilation' of Japanese arts, but with the other hand recognize the 'exclusion' of Japanese arts had a dual-in. Especially, Donga Ilbo has a vision of orientalism on the one hand and has a nationalistic perspective on the other hand.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.1
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• pp.109-144
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• 2003

Orientalness is a concept that expresses the collective identity of the Orient in relation to the West. The concept itself is mutable and defined by the relationship between the two regions at different points in time. Changes in the concept depend on a number of factors, such as cultural influence, the political balance of power between the two regions, and on the interpretative scheme that defines the relationship. In addition, the geographical notion of the concept evolves culturally, socially and politically. During this process, Oriental-ness becomes Oriental-ism at times. I will attempt to survey and measure the progression of Orientalness from its emergence in early 17th century to its subsequent transformation in modern Korea as reflected in art theory and art works. The recognition of the comparative characteristics of Oriental art began when the Orient was exposed to the art of the West in the late Ming dynasty during the early 17th century. The changes in the artistic climate in China affected the late Chosun. I will start with a brief introduction of this time and the birth of Orientalness. The concept gradually changed during the period of Enlightenment(開化期) towards the end of the 19th century, and during the colonial period( 1910-1945) it took on a new form. Establishment of the concept of "Orient"as a single, unifying concept spanning across cultures and national boundaries has been attributed to late Meiji period Japan, whose intention at that time is believed to have been to build a pan-Asia(亞細亞) empire with Japan at its commanding center. It has been stressed that the real motive behind the formation of one single cultural unit, where the shared common written language was Chinese and Confucianism and Taoism were the common metaphysical traditions, was to build one political unit. When the notion of a geographical unit of Asia was replaced by the concept of Asia as a cultural and political unit, a massive growth of interest and discourse were provoked around the concept of Orientalism. When Orientalism was being formulated, Korea automatically became member of "one Asia" when the country became colonized. For Koreans, the identity of the Orient had to be defined in cultural terms, as the political notion of a nation was non-existent at that time. The definition of identity was pursued at two levels, pan-Asian and local. If Orientalism was an elite discourse centered in pan-Asian philosophical and religious tradition, localized Orientalism was a popular discourse emphasizing locality as the byproduct of natural geographic condition. After the liberation in 1945 from colonial rule, a thrust of movement arose towards political nationalism. Two types of discourses on Orientalism, elite and popular, continued as central themes in art. Despite the effort to redefine the national identity by eradicating the cultural language of the colonial past, the past was enduring well into the present time. As discussed above, even when the painting themes were selected from Korean history, the tradition of using history painting as a manifestation of political policy to glorify the local identity had its founding during the Meiji period. The elevation of folk art to the level of high art also goes back to the colonial promotion of local color and local sentiment. Again, the succession of the past (colonial) ideal was defended as the tradition assumed a distinct modern shape that was abstract in style. The concept of the "Orient" is of relative and changing nature. It was formulated in relation to Western culture or civilization. Whatever the real motive of the adoption of them had been, the superiority of the Orient was emphasized at all times. The essence of the Orient was always perceived as the metaphysical tradition as a way to downgrade Western culture as materialistic. This view still prevails and the principle of Orient was always sought in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Even when Orientalism was employed by imperialist Japan in an effort to establish her position as the center of the Orient, the spiritual source was still in Chinese philosophy and religion. In art also, the Chinese literati tradition became the major platform for elite discourse. Orientalism was also defined locally, and the so-called local color was pursued in terms of theme and style. Thus trend continued despite the effort to eradicate the remnants of colonial culture long after liberation. These efforts are now being supported politically and also institutionalized to become the aesthetic ideal of the modern Korean art.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-34
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• 2018

Finding distinguishing characteristics of Southeast Asia has proven to be a significant challenge: by focusing on the encounters which primarily colonial British writers had with the region's state rulers, it becomes possible to recover the early conceptualizations of regional governance. The writings of Henry Yule, Anna Leonowens, Sir George Scott, and Hugh Clifford all document the "orientalist" features of Western discourses because these writers at once were affected by it as they contributed to it. The discourse about royalty and rulers was central to many of the tropes associated with orientalism, but also with 'ornamentalism'. David Cannadine has shown that ornamentalism (in which British conceptualized many imperial practices in relation to their own hierarchical conceptions of society) was as critical a feature of imperial outlook as was orientalism. The need to understand ruling elites was at the heart of the imperialist project. Tracing the ways in which colonizing powers represented the region's ruling elite offers a new avenue for recognizing the affinities of the regional experience. Beyond orientalism, the paper explores questions about the representation and presentation of authority. Understanding the conceptualizations of rulers is connected to the comprehension of social organization-including representations of "traditional society."

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.204-214
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• 2011

This article attenpts to analyze, from the perspective of post-colonialism, 'Goemul'(English title, The Host), the Korean blockbuster movie that scored the greatest box-office success in the history of the Korean cinema. As Goemul eagerly copies the monster movie, a representative genre of Hollywood movies, it has close affinity with Hollywood blockbuster movie in many repects. At the same time, however, it also contains a resistance discourse that criticizes and mocks colonial of Korean society under American influences. This movie successfully carries out a post-colonial cultural translation that transforms mimicry into resistance to colonialsim. Hence, this artcle focuses on how Goemul borrows many aspects of the Hollywood monster movie but goes beyond the simple copying of it to reach post-colonial signification subverting the existing cultural regime.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.20
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• pp.211-224
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• 2010

In David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly and Shirley Lim's Joss and Gold, two Asian-American texts exploring the relationship between America and Asia, the classic Orientalist motif of the infinitely submissive oriental female is reworked to articulate an Asian response to American hegemony. Both works mobilize the Asian female as a figure of contestation to destabilize and reconceptualize the patriarchal and Orientalist strategies of Western cultural and political domination. This paper explores the tactically different though strategically similar counter-discursive moves adopted in the two works to suggest a broader cultural realignment in Asian-American relations.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.1 s.63
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• pp.243-252
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• 2006

This essay studies local design style in globalization era through investigation of the restaurants which are located at suburb of big cities in Korea. All regional memory and history is disappeared in 'The world time' and world design style in globalization era. Thus to study local design means to study the history of certain region and the memory of the people who lives in that area and how they represent their past and memory. Post colonial theory, everyday aesthetics and the way of using past and memory are preresearched for the theoretical background. Post colonial theory is discourse for the countries which have the experience of colonialism. History and memory are used for defining present political, social, economical and cultural situation. In this essay, the way using past and memory were classified in three dimension - by government, company, and individuals. The past which is represented by government is conceptual and defined as only sign without on going history. When it is represented by company, it is also uses as a sign and imitation without contextual meaning. However, when the past is used by individuals, it is alive in daily life. This essay argues that those restaurants which have the style of 'the Koreaness' symbolize the suppressed desire to represent the lost past and memory which are forced to be exduded during the colonial period and fast modern development. And the design style can be defined as epic design, for it has it's own main character, story, memory and plot too. This word 'epic' imply the main point of local design style. In conclusion, this essay will ask the role of design in the country which has colonial memory in globalization era.

• 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 Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.40
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• pp.61-96
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• 2010

This research established that the two characteristics of Femail Gugguek were explored on the character as genre and the nationalism discourse. This research also included how to encounter the characteristic of Female Gugguek as a popular entertainment with the social context at the time and how to re-produce the social ideology. The 'historical nationalism narrative' piercing Female Gugguek had the close relation with the nation/state discourse of the time. The history reproduced by Female Gugguek was not real. It was the imagined past, the history as image. The Female Gugguek was a genre which typically showed how to intermediate fantasy, ideology and narrative. The happy-endings with the victory of male hero, the narrative pattern on overcoming national crisis, the narrative emphasizing the glorious past and the unification of nation, all these were projected the discourse on nationalistic ideology and nation/state-making in 1950's. The Utopian desire of Female Guggeuk imagining the glorious past and strong nation was the fantasy which concealed the contradiction in real life and the national identity damaged by colonial experience, division of territory, governance by U.S. Military Government and the Korean War. The Female Guggeuk was doing well, because it had amusement. Futhermore, imagination of glorious past and strong state/nation of Female Guggeuk satisfied the public's desire of escapism and wish to establish their position and identity in the rapid social-economic changes. However, Female Guggeuk repeatedly produced the never-changing characters, narrative pattern and conservative world-view. Thus, it became regarded as immature and obsolete thing in late 1950's. Female Guggeuk, which kept re-producing the retrogressive image of the past without modern viewpoint and interpretation, was not sensitive about change of time and trend of the people. Consequently, it was pushed out of people's major interest.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.219-238
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• 2018

This essay examines the first-generation Korean American writer, No-Yong Park's falsehoods about his ethnic identity to suggest how and why he passed for Chinese, and to explore the political, anti-Japanese implications of these actions. The essay first identifies erroneous information circulating about his biographical background, presents some other materials that help us better understand the context in which he forged his Chinese identity, and then examines how he represented himself as Chinese in his published works. I would argue that Park's self-identification as Chinese was a resulting outcome of his naturalization caused by the Japanese colonial power in Korea and also one of his surviving strategies in the racist environment within American society. Looking at some of his works-including Making a New China (1929), An Oriental View of American Civilization (1934), Chinaman's Chance: Autobiography (1940)-and examining how he represented Korea and its people reveal how he tried to raise voice for them. By doing so, this essay illuminates Park's resistance to Japan's colonial discourse and power in Korea while revealing his lifetime passing as Chinese-far from his refusal to belong to the Korean community, or to acknowledge being Korean.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.9-29
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• 2022

Postcolonial critics have criticized Comparative Literature for exclusively studying literatures from the non-Western world through Western lenses. In other words, postcolonial criticism asserts that theorists and practitioners of comparative literature have traced the "assistance" of the classic "comparison and contrast" approach to an imperialist discourse, which sustains the superiority of Western cultures and economies. As a countermeasure to reading through the comparative lens, literary theories have offered a "juxtapositional model of comparison" that connects texts across cultures, places, and times. This paper examines practices of Comparative Literature in Vietnam, revealing how the engagement with decolonizing processes leads to a knowledge production that is paradoxically colonial. The paper also analyses implementations of this model in reading select Vietnamese works and highlights how conventional comparisons, largely based on historical influences and reception, maintain the colonial mapping of World Literature, centralizing Western, and more particularly, English Literature and in the process marginalizing the others. Therefore, the practice of juxtaposing Vietnamese literary works with canonical works of the World Literature will provoke dialogues and raise awareness of hitherto marginalized works to an international readership. In this process, the paper considers the contemporary interest of Comparative Literature practice in trans- national, trans-regional, trans-historical, and trans-cultural perspectives.