• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.51
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• pp.133-160
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• 2018

The films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming Liang expose one of the main features of modern Asian cinema: corporality. In their films, the various emotions of characters are expressed and exchanged through the body, not the language, so their film world is a world in which language has lost its function and symbolic order has collapsed. In Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming Liang movies, body language plays a more important role than general language. t=The body performs semiosis, pointing to wildness, anti-civilization, rite, alienation, illusion, etc. At the root of this variety of semiosis is the common denial of Western material civilization which has been rapidly transplanted in modern Asian countries. In addition, while the body of the two directors' films are seen as a sign of wildness, or anti-civilization that contains the intention of escaping from the oppressive and inhuman modern civilization, the body as a sign of illusion, and embraces the will of resistance to civilization. The illusion of experience in their films is ultimately a manifestation of the will to resist the physical and emotional pressures of reality and to continue the irrational persistence.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.77-90
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• 2020

Today, the transition to the era of "post-drama" brought a change in the position of text, which was considered the center of the play, and the expansion of the role of actors. After entering the post-drama era, the actor no longer transforms himself into "delivering" the fixed meaning of text, but "producing" the valid meaning of "now, here" meeting the audience. In other words, actors in the post-drama era have expanded their roles as "performers" who can become the subject of narratives themselves and create various theatrical languages. Despite the expansion of the actor's role, verbal-centered actor training through text, which still forms the basis of acting education, does not satisfy the newly changing contemporary theatricality and creates a gap between education and the field. Therefore, the researcher argued that non-verbal-centered acting education needs to be discussed, and highlighted the actors' physical training on the "empty" side. The researchers first compare and analyze the characteristics of modern theater people's training methods from an "empty" perspective. Based on this, researchers about the meaning and direction of the training "empty". Furthermore, the study concludes with an emphasis on the direction of acting education in the post-drama era, which is free from language that can respond to stimuli and interact freely.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.7
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• pp.35-50
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• 2011

In this study, repression of the body is defined as a restriction on natural developments or movements and a modification either temporarily or permanently of the human body in shape, color, texture and odor. In addition, it involves physical and (or) mental pain. Chinese foot-binding and the Western corset are extreme examples of female body's being repressed in the history of fashion. The analysis of this type of repression will be based on historical research and theoretical concepts such as Darwin's (1809-1882) survival condition, Freud's (1856-1939) renunciation of desire, Weil's (1909-1943) privilege, and Foucault's (1926-1984) L'Usage des Plaisirs(the use of pleasure). Chinese foot-binding symbolically represents ideal beauty, the distinction of an ethnic group, and a desire for improved social status in the struggle for political power. It also represents psychology and a esthetics of eroticism and fetishism that originate from a man's desire and his individual taste. Symbolically, the Western corset represents abundance and fecundity, obedience and devotion to religion, the sanctity of God and ideal beauty as defined by political power. It also represents psychology and aesthetics of eroticism and fetishism as man's desire and a fashion icon. In conclusion, Chinese foot-binding was pursuit of power in male ideology but Western corset was a power struggle between God and mankind.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-109
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• 2010

The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the formative characteristic and the aesthetic values of Romantic style. To attain the goal of this study, the selected objects are the Romantic styles that were prevalent from the 1830s to the 1880s. The methodology for this study consists of literary research, aesthetics, dress and case study based upon the analysis of the 19th century dress. Based upon the theoretical study, two results are derived from the analysis of Romantic style in $19^{th}$ century dress. First, the formative characteristics of Romantic style dress are suppression of body, fixed form, volume, and ornamentation. The suppression of body is embodied by two ways. One is tightening body parts, such as the off-the-shoulder line and the corset, and the other is applying weights on body through the wearing of layers of petticoat, crinoline and bustle. The characteristic of the fixed form created the fixed silhouettes of women's dress, for example, an X-silhouette formed with wide shoulders created by big puffed sleeves, narrow waist by corset, and wide hemline of voluminous skirt and petticoats. In addition to the X-silhouette, the bustle style created fixed h-silhouette. Volume in the women's dress were visually expressed by big puffed sleeves, a huge skirt and petticoat made with gathers, pleats and flounces, crinolines and a bustle. Ornamentation was used to express an elegant and fantastic style not only by using luxurious materials in various colors and patterns, but also by applying sumptuous details and trimmings. Second, the aesthetic values of Romantic style dress are subordination, sensuality, and maternity. Women's dress of the 19th century not only restricted free movement and symbolized men's wealth and status, but also was used as an important tool for seducing men by exposing and accentuating the sexual body, thus becoming a symbol of fertility as a metaphor of pregnancy and uterus. These aesthetic values represented in dress incorporated the contemporary requirements of women of the time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.97-112
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• 2013

In this study, physical, social and psychological repression embodied by the body and clothing are referred to instinctual, power and creative desires, respectively, from the point of biological, social and aesthetic views. Desire refers to a behavior to overcome men's imperfections with individual security, sense of belonging and the pursuit of an ideal, which are obtained by living as a social creature. Repression through the body is sub-categorized depending on whether it is temporary or permanent. Repression expressed through clothing is seen through revealing/concealing, contraction/expansion, and deconstruction/ reconstruction. What enables human beings to embrace changes in fashion without fierce resistance or backlash is the changes of formativeness demonstrated by repression through the body and clothing. The aesthetic values drawn from the exhibition of repression and on the body and clothing are categorized into narcissism, fetishism and aestheticism. While narcissism is an instinctive desire grounded on the originality and confidence of the self that results in refusing repression, fetishism is a desire for power that expedites repression in the pursuit of materialistic value or sexual fantasy. Aestheticism is a desire for creativity that symbolizes the body-and-clothing repression in the pursuit of aesthetic idealism. Repression evokes desire, and the pursuit of desire leads to another repression. The aesthetic values of desire for instinct, power and creativity can be substituted with each other for interpretation according to the attitudes of an initiator, a user and a spectator.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.40
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• pp.111-131
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• 2015

An unusual success engendering loyalty among cult fans in the United States, Mamoru Oshii's 1995 cyberpunk anime, Ghost in the Shell (GITS) revolves around a female cyborg assassin named Motoko Kusanagi, a.k.a. "the Major." When the news came out last year that Scarlett Johansson was offered 10 million dollars for the role of the Major in the live action remake of GITS, the frustrated fans accused DreamWorks of "whitewashing" the classic Japanimation and turning it into a PG-13 film. While it would be premature to judge a film yet to be released, it appears timely to revisit the core achievement of Oshii's film untranslatable into the Hollywood formula. That is, unlike ultimately heteronormative and humanist sci-fi films produced in Hollywood, such as the Matrix trilogy or Cloud Atlas, GITS defies a Hollywoodization by evoking much bafflement in relation to its queer, posthuman characters and settings. This essay homes in on Major Kusanagi's body in order to update prior criticism from the perspectives of posthumanism and queer theory. If the Major's voluptuous cyborg body has been read as a liberating or as a commodified feminine body, latest critical work of posthumanism and queer theory causes us to move beyond the moralistic binaries of human/non-human and male/female. This deconstruction of binaries leads to a radical rethinking of "reality" and "identity" in an image-saturated, hypermediated age. Viewed from this perspective, Major Kusanagi's body can be better understood less as a reflection of "real" women than as an embodiment of our anxieties on the loss of self and interiority in the SNS-dominated society. As is warned by many posthumanist and queer critics, queer and posthuman components are too often used to reinforce the human. I argue that the Major's hybrid body is neither a mere amalgam of human and machine nor a superficial postmodern blurring of boundaries. Rather, the compelling combination of individuality, animality, and technology embodied in the Major redefines the human as always, already posthuman. This ethical act of revision-its shifting focus from oppressive humanism to a queer coexistence-evinces the lasting power of GITS.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.39
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• pp.69-97
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• 2021

'Déconstruction' is a system of thought that induces the emergent property that characterizes contemporary philosophy. The tradition of ancient Greek philosophy evolved over and over again, giving rise to the Renaissance and Enlightenment. It seemed to have reached its end under the historical perspective of modernity. However, contemporary philosophy wanted to see more possibilities through the deconstruction of modern philosophy. If modern philosophy dreams of a strange cohabitation between God and man with the humanistic completion of Plato's philosophy, modern philosophy rejects even that through deconstruction. Although Plato's classical metaphysics is a stable system centered around the absolute, it is ultimately based on God and religion. Under that system, human autonomy is only the autonomy bestowed by God. Contemporary philosophy is one of the results of efforts that try to begin philosophy from the original human voice through deconstruction. Instead of epistemology dependent on metaphysics, they wanted to establish epistemology from human existence and realize the best good that would set humans free through deconstruction. As such, it is no mistake to say that deconstruction is also an extension of the modern topic of human freedom. Deconstruction and human freedom act as one body in that the two cannot be separated from each other. Oddly enough, Daesoon Thought, which seems to have religious faith and traditional conservatism as main characteristics, has an emergent property that encompasses modern and contemporary times. The period of Korea, when Kang Jeungsan was active and founded Daesoon Thought, has an important meaning for those who have a keen view of history. Such individuals likely think that they have found a valuable treasure. This is because that period was a time when ideological activities were conducted due to an intense desire to discover the meaning of human freedom and envision a new world without copying the ways of the West. Instead they looked to face internal problems and raise people's awareness through subjectivity. In other words, the subtle ideas created by Korea's self-sustaining liberalism often take the form of what is commonly called new religions in modern times. Among these new religions, Daesoon Thought, as a Chamdonghak (true Eastern Learning), aims to spread a particular modern value beyond modern times through the concept of Haewon (the resolution of grievances) that was proclaimed by Jeungsan. The Haewon espoused in Daesoon Thought is in line with the disbandment of modern philosophy in that it contains modernity beyond modern times. First, Haewon means to resolve the fundamental resentment of human existence, which arose from Danju's grievance. Secondly, Haewon in Daesoon Thought encompasses the Haewon of the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity centers on a Haewon-esque style of existence called Injon (Human Nobility). Haewon in Daesoon Thought can be understood in the same context as Derrida's philosophy of Deconstruction. Modern deconstruction attempts to expose the invisible structures and bonds within human society and attempt to destroy them. In a similar way, Haewon endeavors to resolve the conflicts among the Three Realms by releasing the bonds of fundamental oppression that hinder the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

• 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.