• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.31-51
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• 2018

The concept of 'monsters' have become popular, again, in recent times. A number of 'monster narratives' that discuss monsters such as zombies, humanoids, viruses, extraterrestrials, and serial killers have been made and re-made in popular media. Noting such an interesting cultural context, this article attempts, first, to find out some essential prototypical elements of a monster narrative and, second, to relate it with a catastrophic narrative. Correspondingly, the word 'monster' has been used as a conceptual prototype category that denies universal and clear definition, which makes it as one of the most widely used and familiar subjects of the use of metaphor. The prototypical meanings of various monster figures can be converged on a certain creature of being in this way held out as bizarre, curious, and abnormal. The monster figure that surpasses existing normality is also connected to 'abjection,' such as something that is cast aside from the body such as the bodily functions seen in its associated blood, tears, vomit, excrement, or semen, and so on. Nevertheless, both the monster figure and abjection produce disgust and horror in the minds of ordinary spectators or readers of media using this metaphor to heighten excitement for the viewers. The abject characteristic of the monster figure also has something in common with the posthuman figure, meaning to apply to a category of inhuman others who are held outside of the normal category of human beings. In the similar vein, it is natural that the most typical monster figures in our times are posthuman creatures embodied in such forms as seen with zombies, humanoids, cyborgs, robots, and so on. In short, the monster figure includes all of the creatures and beings that disarray normalized humanist categories and values. The monster narrative, in the same sense, is a type of story that tells about others outside modern, anthropocentric, male-centered, and Westernized categories of thought. It can be argued that a catastrophic narrative, a literary genre which depicts the world where a series of catastrophic events demolish the existing human civilization, ought to be seen as a typical modern-day monster narrative, because it also discounts and criticizes normalized humanist categories and values as is the result of the monster narrative. Going beyond the prevailing humanist realist narrative that are so familiar with existing values, the catastrophic narrative is not only a monster narrative per se, but also a monstrous narrative which disrupts and reinvents currently mainstream narratives and ways of thinking.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.131
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• pp.223-244
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• 2014

In this paper, the author interprets Juyeok (The Book of Changes) as a philosophical book on self-culture instead of a book on divination. Juyeok, originally, was a book on divination written to tell fortunes; however, it has been a rich source producing the discourse of the humanities. This is because it has a unique system of linguistic symbols. Gwae-Hyo (Hexagrams and Horizontal Lines) system of Juyeok has a number of symbolic features, and there is too much room for new philosophical, cultural interpretations. Thus, Juyeok can be applied to any information and events, and it can, accordingly, help solve the problems of life we are facing. Moreover, Juyeok's unique characteristics are revealed very well in active intervention of persons who read and interpret it. Carl Gustav Jung is the very person who argued that one should interpret Juyeok through this active intervention. In the foreword of Juyeok translated by Richard Wilhelm, he mentions a possibility of the interpretation of Juyeok applying 'synchronicity.' According to him, Juyeok is a material not to predict the future or tell the fate ordained, but to look back on oneself or find the solutions of problems oneself. It allows the inquirer to interpret Gwae-Hyo-Sa (Explanations) not simply through the result of fortune-telling but the act of telling one's fortune. He applies 'synchronicity' to the finding of answers to one's problems in the given Gwae-Hyo-Sa. Synchronicity refers to 'the principle of non-causal relationship explaining a phenomenon of meaningful coincidence.' Here, simultaneity, unlike contingency the principle of causality refers to, means 'meaningful coincidence.' He presents a theory that the divination signs derived from Gwae-Hyo-Sang (Images) through synchronicity is a reflection of the psychology of the unconscious the fortune-teller or a man who receives the results of the divination signs has under certain circumstances on the outside. This is because Jung interprets it like this because the way of communication of Juyeok using symbolic language is not direct but indirect. Juyeok's system of symbolic language aims not at delivering objective knowledge, but the reader's self-transformation. This point can be applied in clinical philosophy. People who suffer from agony and pain in their daily lives may find meaningful and helpful advice for themselves no matter what Gwae-Hyo-Sa they choose in Juyeok. This is because it was originally hidden in their inner space and just revealed concretely through Gwae-Hyo-Sang or Gwae-Hyo-Sa in Juyeok. In this sense, we connect the meaning Gwae-Hyo-Sang or Sa contains from Juyeok to their circumstances, read counsel or advice needed ourselves and make it our own to be able to have power to change and help ourselves. And at this very point may be evaluated as an important role of Juyeok.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.48
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• pp.31-66
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• 2017

This study examines ways of recognizing and aspects of describing Korean modern literature revealed by each literary history from the viewpoint of 'transculturation', focusing on Lim Jeon-Hye's "History of Korean Literature in Japan until 1945", Shirakawa Yutaka's "Footsteps of Korean Modern Literature", and Saegusa Toshikatsu's "Taste of Korean Literature" from the history of Korean literature written in Japan. First, Lim Jeon-Hye periodically examines Korean literature written in Japan, focusing on literary activities of Korean students in Japan and the proletarian literature movement, and addresses points of active cultural negotiation, mutual understanding and political solidarity between Korea and Japan. Shirakawa Yutaka focuses on the concurrency and connection of Korea, China, and Japan in the process of modern literary formation, covering Japanese language literature and pro-Japanese literature with great care, and describes the middle-layer position as a mediating researcher in the conflicting boundaries between Korea and Japan. Saegusa Toshikatsu provides interesting transcultural momentum in exploring internal logic and denotation of Korean literature via comparative literature review encompassing East Asia, implementation of literary forms and themes connecting tradition and modernity, and an out-of-boundary point of view to overlook 'pro-Japanese literature', etc. Transcultural aspects in this literary history to examine are as follow. First, the history of Korean modern literature based on 'national literature history' is catabolized in the magnetic field of the 'colonial experience' and 'national nationalism' and considered in multifaceted context. Second, they provide the possibility of three-dimensional and micro-narrative description of literature that complement the narrative aspect of existing Korean literature history. Third, they provide an opportunity to expand and open the description of literature history through acceptance of comparative literary perspectives encompassing East Asia. Fourth, through discovery of Korean-Japanese literature and Japanese language literature, they contribute to broadening the history of Korean modern literature and enriching foundations.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.313-346
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• 2018

It is noted that generally speaking, the expressing of actualization or non-actualization of events is not the main role of possibility for the utilization of expressions. In spite of this fact, it is possible to see many examples in which possibility expressions represent actual events, and impossibility expressions represent a type of non-actualization in relation to events. This effect can be described as a semantic extension, by which the participant-internal possibility is extended to actualization due to participant-internal factors, and the participant-external possibility is extended to the actualization due to participant-external factors. When the related possibility expressions are used in this extended sense, they express the dynamic evaluative meaning of 'desirability' of the realized event, while it is determined that when the impossibility expressions are used in this extended sense, they are seen to express the evaluative meaning of 'regretfulness' about the non-actualization of the event. In Modern Japanese, it is noted that there are a few expressions of ability and possibility. They can be largely divided into four types of expressions, according to their origins or uses of expression, which are 'ability verbs', affixes '-れる/られる(-reru/rareru)', '-できる(-dekiru)', and '-得る(-eru)'. They can all express participant-internal possibility and participant-external non-deontic possibility. While 'ability verbs', affixes '-れる/られる' and '-できる' can express participant-external deontic possibility, '-得る' cannot. However, '-得る' is the only possible element to designate the event of a epistemic possibility. Also, the four types of expressions have the usage of conveying 'actualization/non-actualization,' as is the case of the Korean language. However in Japanese, in fact adjectives cannot be associated with 'ability verbs' or 'ability affixes.' Thus the expressions of 'regrets' should in that case depend on the use contexts, unlike the expression 'adj+-지 못하다' as noted in Korean. The ability and possibility in Modern Chinese are mainly expressed by means of the four auxiliary verbs '能($n{\acute{e}}ng$)', '会(huì)', '可以(kěyǐ)' and '可能 ($k{\check{e}}n{\acute{e}}ng$)'. '能' and '会' along with '可以' can all convey participant-internal possibility. In this way '能' and '可以' can express participant-external possibility. Only '会' and '可能' can express epistemic possibility. As for 'actualization,' among the four auxiliary verbs, only '能' can represent actualization. Also, among the negatives of the four auxiliary verbs, only '沒能' can represent non-actualization.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.77-101
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• 2018

Even in our modern era, the projection of monsters in the recent literature contains the critical imagination of human existence for the posthuman age. The meaning of the monster-abject, especially as from the perspective of feministic criticism, contains criticism of the violent and oppressive patriarch as observed in the modern times. This article focuses on the gendered imagination of the discussions of the "abject" discussed by Julia Kristeva, and the "monstrous femine" discussed by Barbara Creed. Kim Eon-Hee's poems and Han Kang's novels, which have been examined extensively for analysis, show that the practical strategy of abject that goes beyond hate and sublime, wonder and joy through the imagination and concepts of monsters. The monster-abject strategy of Kim Eon-Hee's poem can be summarized by the narrative method of mirroring and the imagination of the truncated body. Mirroring falsification, which mimics the male speaker, is a method that some feminists strategically utilize in relation to the problem of female aversion in recent years as noted in the literature. In Kim Eon-Hee's poem, "becoming a man" and "imitating a man," through the method of mirroring appear as an image of cutting to dismantle the body. In that way, the narrative strategy of the abject that draws out abominations and bizarre effects which contains a strong critique of the patriarchal dominant ideology. The monster-abject strategy of Han-Kang's novel is embodied through the being of plants and the process of vegetarian-anorexia process. The world of the adject which was oppressed in the Han-Kang's novel, returns to the senses of the body through the symbol of the body. It is noted that the fictional characters who realize the repressed desire through the pathological symptom expressed by the female, go on to body perform active transformation. The sense of a body in a novel is not only a rejection of the world of animalman-civilization, but also a radically questioning of the noted and recognized boundaries between human beings and non-human being entities. The two writer's works show that the imagination of the monster-adject is not limited to rejecting the existing gender categories, but also goes in the direction of exploring the possibilities of various associated gender actions.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.33-56
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• 2015

Trauma studies have provided useful models for dealing with the catastrophic and disastrous events that an individual and collective group experience. Most important of all, the perspective of post-structuralist trauma study, including Cathy Caruth, became a paradigmatic model and it has been applied to almost all contexts of life. The perspective of this study model, which is called an "event-based model of trauma," focuses on the literal registration of the traumatic event and the accurate and immediate recall of the past. The person directly involved in the event becomes the passive bearer transmitting the truth of a traumatic event. From this perspective, the traumatic subject only undergoes and endures the event and cannot play an active role in constructing trauma and dealing with it. Eventually, the truth of trauma has to be obtained at the cost of the traumatic subject's autonomy and the possibility of his/her agency. The problem here is that the truth, which is reencountered through the literal return of the past, obtained at the cost of the subject's autonomy, strikes a rather fatal blow to the person, than gives help for resolving many of matters surrounding traumatic experience and curing trauma. This suggests that the active way of dealing with trauma on the part of the traumatic subject, rather than the traumatic event itself, is demanded. Furthermore, because more recently, images of disastrous events were viewed "live" by audiences and an immediacy to the event is replicated in public discourse about them, the event becomes more immediately traumatic and there is a more strong presumption that people regard themselves as traumatic victims than before. This is the reason that we must explore an active way dealing with trauma on more human position at this time. This essay aims to examine the limits of the paradigmatic model of trauma study, an "event-based model of trauma," critically through a literary, theoretical text in which it reveals how the literal return of the traumatic past have a fatal effect on the victim; and hopes to suggest "the narrative memory" as a way to deal with trauma from a more humanistic perspective.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.371-394
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• 2018

La estrella de Sevilla, is a representative masterpiece of the Golden Age of Spain, and is a tragic work of Lope de Vega, who was a representative drama writer living in the 17th century. However, regardless of its great literary value, there are insufficient researches on this drama even in Spain, due to several controversies surrounding the truth about Lope's creation. Here, this research concretely investigated the tragic characteristic of this drama, by largely dividing it into the viewpoint of Aristotle and Shakespeare. Thanks to the noble social status of the characters and proper dialogue of the hero Sancho Ortiz in trouble, there seems to be no problem in performing the cathartic function that Aristotle mentioned regarding the work in his review. However, there are a few problems in the aspect of the 'hero's free will to resist the absolute fate,' which is fundamentally the essence of the associated Aristotelian tragedy. Because, there's no Hamartia in this drama, the core mechanism that forms the absolute fate, makes the statement that accordingly, no absolute fate or irresistible force of destiny is established. Rather, the tragic characteristic of this drama can be more properly investigated from the viewpoint of Shakespeare. As noted differently from Aristotle, Shakespeare considered that the tragic characteristic came from the hero's characteristic. According to him, tragedy starts from the hero's value view and personality, instead of the external factors such as an absolute fate. Actually, Busto's death and separation between Sancho Ortiz and Estrella, two tragic affairs of La estrella de Sevilla, were caused by the crooked selfishness of King Sancho IV, who abused his authority, and Sancho Ortiz' excessively blind loyalty to the King, rather than the irresistible event. In conclusion, in light of a lethargic and hopeless situation, with no eventual choice of options before the injustice of absolute power, is must have been a significant tragedy for the audience, witnessing the play's tragic ending.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.29
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• pp.134-167
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• 2016

This paper aims at exploring the characteristics and meanings of religious freedom controversy surrounding religious education, with special reference to proselytism, in protestant mission school in recent Korea. Most of protestant mission schools have been providing students compulsory religion class and chapel service in the name of religious education. According to the school authorities, religious education should be provided for the realization of founding philosophy, and they say that mission school has the right to religious education. On the contrary, many non-christian students argue that their religious liberty is seriously violated by required religious education especially compulsory chapel worship. So serious conflicts broke between mission school authorities and students. Supreme Court decided that Soongsil University has the right to maintain compulsory chapel service, ruling that Daegwang High School should not maintain required chapel worship. It seems that Supreme Court gave different decisions to high school and university respectively, considering the differences between high school and university in application for admission to a school, students' critical consciousness, school's autonomous rights, etc. However, these precedents are being challenged by many peoples and groups. There are three agents which are involved in religious freedom controversy in mission school. The first are mission school authorities supported by religious groups, the second government supported by political parties, and the third mission school students guided by NGO. Among them protestant groups are playing the major role in making religious freedom problems in mission school. Protestant groups try to convert mission school students to protestantism by compulsory chapel service and religion class. Such a protestant proselytism becomes a cause of oppressing students' human rights and religious liberty. In this situation government has a responsibility to protect the students' rights to religious freedom. But government seldom impose sanctions on the protestant mission schools' compulsory programs. The reason why government does not restrict mission school's unlawful religious education is because protestant groups have strong influence in voting. Eventually civil movements organizations involved in religious freedom controversy for the sake of students's human rights. In conclusion, the assailment is protestant proselytism, the accessory is government, the victim is students in the religious education in mission school in recent Korea.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• no.117
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• pp.139-167
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• 2017

This essay attempts to reveal how taste spontaneously cultivates and why it is necessary for cultivating taste to edify our personality and to develop culture. It is a key of the solution of the problems that taste always reflects its judgment through pleasure. Because the grounds of the universal validity of the judgment of taste are found, whenever taste tests the validity of its own judgment, the so-called 'delight of discovery' makes taste cultivate itself. For having the moral personality, we need to practice spontaneously the morality of our own behaviour and for judging whether an artwork to represent the period is succeeded or not, we need to have a high insight to select the cultural heritage. But the autonomous thinking can delightfully be made a habit, judging the beauty of artworks. In the main body of this essay, it is determined from the three examples of the negative judgment of taste which Kant suggested in deduction. According to Kant, the negative judgment of taste means that the beautiful work is displeased, but what it asserts is that taste is cultivated. I formalize the methods of reflection of taste revealed in three negative judgments of taste into'resisting', 'indicating of error', 'self-retracting'.(Chapter 2) And from this, I emphasize the necessity to cultivate taste in the way that these methods of the cultivation of taste can affect building our personality by stimulating our reason to have interest in moral(Chapter 3) and in the way that taste directly judges the product of cultural succession.(Chapter 4) In the end of last chapter, I examine further essentially the method of the reflection of taste, to inquire into how to enable it.(Chapter 5) Especially, I try to illuminate its grounds through Schiller's concept of the "impulse of amusement(Spieltrib)", because his explanation helps us to understand the dynamics of taste's delight of discovery. Although the abilities of mind conflict with each other, taste has the characters that it reflects to encourage them for each other and that it is vitalized by its own activity. We, as it were, can pleasantly handle two tasks, because taste makes the impulse of amusement from conflictive impulses in mind. In conclusion, I state that we have to experience directly the impulse of amusement like creative artist, because it is maximized from creation.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• no.116
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• pp.251-281
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• 2017

The Parmenidean tradition of logos which previous researches fail to fully appreciate has three dimensions of reality-knowledge-discourse. Parmenides is not just an ontologist, as the traditional view emphasizes, but also an epistemologist, as the revisionist view begins to emphasize, and, at the same time, a meta-discourser, as those two established views fail to embrace. In order to reach the third view which fully grasps such a dynamic and integrated feature of Parmenides, we should closely pay attention to the organic interconnectedness of three discourse parts of truth-doxa-proem, especially the significance of proem and meta-discourse. In the Eleatic tradition of discourse, the figure who clearly appreciated and further developed such an authentic feature of Parmenides' discourse is not, as one might easily expect, one of the second-generation Eleatics, but Gorgias who has commonly been positioned at the opposite side of Eleatism. This paper investigates how he actually both innovated and succeeded the Parmenidean tradition of logos; especially, it characterizes his discourse as an antilogy(antilogia) from within the tradition: as a 'devil' advocate' who complemented and completed Parmenidean persuasion by positing the Parmenidean tradition of logos as an arena of a huge intellectual discipline and cultivation, offering himself as a sparring partner to it, and bringing up an antilogy. In the process of this antilogy he performed in his rhetorical speeches such as the Encomium of Helen and the Defense of Palamedes he experimented and examined a possibility of persuasion operating independently from truth, which, however, is not merely sacrificing truth in favor of persuasiveness and probability (to eikos) as Plato criticized mainly focussing on his 'philosophical' writing On not-being. Rather, it was an 'opposition for opposition's sake' and serious play which purported to provide balance and flexibility to contemporary intellectual society which had too much inclined towards truth and knowledge and become stiff and to put weight on the opposite side of mainstream. It is wholly our eranos (i.e. our share of contribution) to summon and examine such sophistic tradition for the sake of the task of our times, not for the sake of Plato's task, that we should build up a healthy culture of discourse where we can share serious play.