• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.89-100
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to identify online-game players' desire in cheating programs through Rene Girard's theory of mimetic desire. Cheating programs disrupts the magic circle of the game with denying the lusory attitude that players should have. The cheating players' desires do not go directly to victory, but are mediated by a virtual 'model player' which the rules of the game imply. They are internally mediated, so there is constant conflict in the play. Cheating players' desire to enhance skills by technology is defined as a false desire for transhuman.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.121-129
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• 2019

This study aims to focus on the text analysis, production methods of text, and reproduction of production methods, based on a film (2010) taken by mobile devices. As a digital film in which the objects and images have no characteristics of index, this work has the post-cinematic attributes in the aspect of consumers' recipience. This thesis paid attention to the interactions between essential change and production/consumption throughout the whole film culture in the receptive aspect. Just as the main character is a mediator-shaman in the film, this film works as a mediating position of cinematic possibility. In this film, there are different kinds of mediation such as mediation of shaman inside the text, mediation of film in the relationship between text and consumers, and consumers' instrumental desire for others'tool outside the text. Outside the text, this relevant film stimulates the imitation desire of consumer subjects as others. In other words, this is connected to the desire of consumers who aim to create a digital film through mobile devices as an author. This is connected to Simondon's thinking in which such technical objects not only generate new relationships, but also become a revolutionary seed that newly collectivizes human society.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.25
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• pp.133-154
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• 2011

Yang, Youngsun's 1001 has been a monumental "Web-toon" work optimized in Web Environment. This paper has intended to explain semantics of 1001 (reconstructed works of the Arabian Nights) by mimesis theory of desires and scapegoat mechanism of Ren$\acute{e}$ Girard; Shahriah, the protagonist, had been hurt by Queen's affair, but in the depth of his mind, he had suffered the problem of injured self-esteem by his model, father. However, Shahriah's mind had been recovered slowly by story therapy of Sheherezade. Sheherezade's story therapy had made up by contrasting states, violence and sacrificial love. In the very end, Shariah had solved all the problems of the structural Negativities by accepting his fate.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2020

K-Pop is powerful. Once considered to be at the periphery of global music scene, it is now reaching the whole world. Not surprisingly, the media, domestic and foreign, have scrambled to unlock the secrets of K-Pop's phenomenal growth. In doing so, they have not failed to highlight the underside of its success, such as cut-throat competition among idol-group members and the programmed member replacement by their agencies. One of the most notable characteristics in this process is called, in their business jargon, 'the graduation system'. This paper attempts to explicate this management practice unique to K-pop industry. To do so, this paper draws on Rene Girard's work on desires, particularly his notion of mimesis, violence and the scapegoat mechanism. Based on a documentary film, interactive online sites and a monograph that have chronicled how the K-pop girl group <9 Muses> have 'graduated' during their debut process, this paper applies, as its main analytical tool, the scapegoat mechanism and attempts to explore on its basis what 'the system' entails for the K-pop industry in general and the actors working within it in particular.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.44
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• pp.307-331
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• 2016

Webtoon is the most popular cultural contents representing contemporary Korea. This study explores the cultural aspects of participatory culture surrounding Webtoon, and reveals the cultural implications of webtoon in contemporary Korea. Particularly, this study notes that the engagement of the participatory culture is formed from the user-generated images and analyzes the reproduction patterns of them. Chapter 2 analyzes the mimicking process of user-generated images based on the 'meme' concept. Especially based on the variation degree of text or image, the user-generated images could be classified into three types of 'completely variant', 'partly variant', and 'completely same'. Users use these images as one of the fun factor by transplanting them into daily messenger conversation. Chapter 3 reveals the cultural meaning which is derived from the process of user-generated images creation. In particular, this study notes that most of the user-generated images are mimicking the main character of the original webtoon, and analyzes the underlying desire of the mass based on the literary theory of Northrop Frye. The main readers of webtoon are petit-bourgeois living in Korean metropolitan, and the user-generated images also reflects the daily lives of these ordinary people. User-generated images of webtoon are imitating the original contents in a way of replicating or mutating the images or texts. Also, they are consumed and enjoyed as an amusing code among users. Especially by mimicking the appearance of the main character in a self-reflective way, they appeal to day-to-day sympathy of users. In that user-generated images reveal the desire of the public living in contemporary Korea, this study examines the cultural implication of webtoon.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.393-398
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• 2022

Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) uses Iphigeneia in Aulis written by Euripides, one of the three great Greek tragedies writers, as the archetypal narrative. Thus, Lanthimos introduces a mythical world stained with 'blood violence by a divine being' within the cinematic diegesis of a modern American metropolis. And the mythical motifs of curses and scapegoats are varied. This thesis tried to read the scapegoat mechanism, the oldest mechanism of escape from the crisis of collective sacrifice, and the imitative and mutual characteristics of desire and violence through René Girard through the mythical world built in the modern time and space of the film. Martin places a cursed oracle on Steven when his desire to place him in his father's place is thwarted. The 'good' reciprocity between two people is rapidly transformed into a 'bad' reciprocity. The Killing of Sacred Deer is an excellent portrayal of how the scapegoat mechanism works through Steven's family. The selection of the scapegoat by lot gives the sacrificial lamb a sacred character thanks to its divine nature, and the scapegoat becomes a sacred being, and the family order is re-established.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.969-977
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• 2017

Through Rene Girard's theory of triangle of the desire, this research investigates the mimetic nature of desire as shown in the main character of the movie The Servant. This paper analyzes the structural transformation of desire in the character, which is revealed by the process of reinterpretation via the medium change and convergence from Chunhyangjeon, a classic oral novel in Korea, to The Servant, a movie created by director Dae-woo Kim in 2010. The Servant is a meaningful research subject as the transformation of the inner desire of the character is accomplished by boldly designating Bangja, who is supposed to be a minor character, as the protagonist. In particular, Rene Girard's argument on the indirectness of desire in the theory of triangle of the desire helps understand the point where the character' inner desire, which naturally occurred in the existing narrative, transforms into the mimetic desire by an intermediary. This indirectness of the mimetic desire of the main character suggests a similarity with modern men's vanity which is offered by the capitalist era. Through this, the modern meaning of the mimetic aspect of desire as revealed by the transformation from the movie The Servant to Chunhyangjeon can be understood.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.115-170
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• 2018

The objective of this paper is to explore Jim's itinerary journey in terms of both Girald's concept of triangular desire and Derrida's concept of event. According to the Girard's mimetic desire theory, human being's desire is not spontaneous like Romanticism thought, but mimetic to the mediator between the subject and the object. Thus there is no romantic desire understood as one's own desire except mimetic desire. In this regard, mimetic desire is compatible with the conception of Derrida's thinking of an event that is resistant to its absolute singularity. Because both mimetic desire and event cannot be defined by the fact of each spatio-temporal specificity, they can not be understood by a traditional metaphysics of presence. In this paper, by using Girard's concept of mimetic desire theory, I showcase why the tragic journey of Jim's telos as a mythic quest for his romantic ego(ipse) cannot help but face his death and by using deconstructive thinking of iterability, this paper analyzes why Jim's romantic ego imitated by the mimetic desire through a mediator cannot be encountered happily with his ipseity until his end. As a victim of triangluar desire, Jim's romantic ego is nothing but a notion of an ipsiety that has been defined in terms of presence central to metaphysics. This paper also makes an attempt to re-interpret some articles contaminated with post-colonial perspectives from Derridean views with deconstructive rigorous reading to those papers to uncover an essential ground of presence.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.57-75
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• 2020

This study identifies the symbolism of cross symptoms of different classes during the modernization process based on the imagery of and , both of which are Korean films made in the same era of the 1960s. The study referred to a number of Korean family movie films in the 1960s, in particular and , which are notably different in ways of expression and in social class of the subject matter, and identifies how the films express the mixed aspects of the cross modernization period. The film uses a grotesque expressionist method to voyeuristically look into a newly emerging middle class family, and the deconstructive aspect of a family unit whose excessive desire leads to its own ruin; thus, the film presents a new perspective into the various social issues that emerge in the near future. In contrast, engages realistic depictions to describe in detail the deep conflict of pain and hope within the hardships of life from the urban poor through a deep family conflict. Ultimately, the two films expose the various social issues through the familiar and the unfamiliar that appear from the mixed aspects of the cross modernization period, in other words, the conflicting images of the traditional and the modern.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.34
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• pp.129-165
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• 2014

K-pop performances are in the center of the contemporary popular arts and cultural industry, and implicitly reveal the way that our society views the body and the time-space. This paper explores the motif of automaton in the K-pop idol group ShiNee's stage performance of 'Everybody' and the song's music video. At the same time, the paper relates the motif with the automaton of the digital era-that is, the sense of time-space in digital animations. The motif of the automaton has its origins in the mythical forms related to the animation, and is related to the human desire to create humanlike forms. Also, this motif is closely linked to the aesthetical meaning of the animation, being played in different variations since the beginning of the animation. This paper explores the tradition of automaton motif in culture and the arts, and look into the cases in which the history of the relationship between the media and body performance harboring the automaton motif has been displayed in 19th century ballet or modern body expressional arts. In addition, this paper will compare and analyze representative contemporary works that reveal digital viewpoint and the choreography of 'Everybody', and compare other works that stand in similar aesthetic tradition, investigating the influence of digital animation reflected in the K-pop idol and its aesthetic and social undertones.