• 영미문화
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.23-48
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• 2014

Considered as the first generation of the Chinese American male writers, Shawn Wong has often been tagged with the male-centered or cultural nationalistic writer for his first short novel Homebase since the 1970s. He has, however, shifted his own gender and cultural attitudes toward his male character in his second novel American Knees, published in 1995. By focusing on his second novel, this paper examines how Wong critically reconsiders the male-centeredness and cultural nationalism in a way to invalidate them in relationships among male and female characters in the formation of the Chinese American male's identity. Attempting to establish his own national and cultural identity as an American citizenship and the self-awareness of masculinity as a man, Rainsford Chan in Homebase believed that he could achieve his identity and masculinity with the chronological experiences related to his ancestors in American society. He even strictly erased the presence of female in his own identity formation. In doing so, he seemed to anchor his authorship at the discourse of the male-centeredness and cultural nationalist like other contemporary writers such as Frank Chin and Jeffrey Paul Chan who always strongly marked cultural tradition. By creating a non-conventional male character Raymond Ding with compromising and open-eared attitudes toward female characters, however, Wong dramatically changes the idea of representing the relationships between male and female characters in American Knees. In this novel, he suggests that the male character' identity can be properly formed not in the extreme reinforcement of masculinity or the ethnic-based cultural awareness but with the mutual understanding between male and female individuals regardless of ethnic and nationalistic biases. Consequently, Wong attempts to bail out of the male-centered images of the first generation of the Chinese American male writers through Raymond Ding.

• 영미문화
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.219-239
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• 2014

Arjun Appadurai contends that "the new global cultural economy has to be seen as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order that cannot any longer be understood in terms of existing center-periphery models" (32); though discerning and perhaps becoming more and more apt, Appadurai's observation of the breakdown of the "center-periphery" binary appears as mere "academic jargon" in the lives of new immigrants, tackling the murky waters of identity politics in the transcultural technoscape of modern America in Kunzru's Transmission. Kunzru's antihero is Arjun Mehta, a software technician, who comes to America with high hopes of realizing the "American Dream." To a certain extent, Arjun himself is culpable of resurrecting the "center" as he prioritizes America and its values over all else. Despite his best efforts, Arjun cannot prevail in the perilous politics of exclusion/inclusion, and is relegated into a "high-tech coolie," exploited for his technological savvy. Even as the "center-periphery" binary stays intact in the production of an (Asian) American identity, it becomes undone in the hands of this "would-be" American; ultimately denied inclusion into America, Arjun unleashes a destructive virus that has major global consequences. In a sense, the boundary that separates the center and the periphery comes down as both collectively become victims to Arjun's retributive malfeasance. Arjun seems to rely on the "American" promise that old allegiances (to a national identity) are now defunct and new ones can be easily forged; as Kunzru's Transmission demonstrates with the tragic story of Arjun, the complex politics of identity production in America does not necessarily deliver on this promise. This essay hence aims to examine the politics of (national) belonging in the age of transnationalism.

• 영미문화
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.51-70
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• 2009

For a long time Westerners have considered the Orient as unknown and mysterious, but Orientals soon came to be seen as weak and dependent, or feminine. The Oriental woman became a synecdoche for the Orient itself. We can find this theme in several British plays that deal with the Orient and Oriental women, including Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Dryden's All for Love. Both of these plays have Egypt as their setting and Cleopatra as a main character. For a better society, Shaw emphasizes the importance of education. In Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw sees Egypt as a weak and dependent country which needs the help of Rome. Accordingly, he depicts Cleopatra as young and ignorant, needing to be educated in her role as a queen. Shaw finds possibilities for growth and independence in the Egyptians and Cleopatra, who recognize themselves as Egyptians and pursue their identity apart from the colonialization of Rome. Here the Egyptians attempt to resist and escape the oppression of Rome. Young, dependant and ignorant Cleopatra becomes independent and knowledgeable as the result of her education by Caesar and in the end she becomes a real Egyptian queen. According to Shaw, the Orient and women have the potential to develop themselves and ultimately to overcome the government of Western countries and men. In this play, Shaw emphasizes the potential of the Orient and women and the importance of education. Shaw thinks women can grow and develop through education. Especially through Cleopatra's growth, his thought can be applied for Oriental women as well as Western women. His thought is beyond the 19th century British society in which this play was written. Through this play, we can see Shaw's thought is not limited by race, time and place and also has universality to transcend everything.

• 영미문화
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.89-110
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• 2016

Since he was an exile, Henry James himself was well aware of agonies as an outsider in either Europe or America. Such an anguish is deftly depicted in the character of Felix Young with James's unique ironic tone. Unlike James, however, Felix is neither affluent nor distinguished as an artist. Nor is he supported by any patron. Furthermore, at first, he doesn't seem to survive the strict joyless environment in New England, but he possesses his own survival value. His unique esthetic value and his beautiful smile enable him to win Gertrude's heart. His adroit balance between pleasure-seeker and respect for American serious culture without hostility ultimately ends up with his marrying Gertrude. His arrival in Boston might pose a threat as Mr. Wentworth fears. Actually he subverts the traditional idea of an artist. He is armed with amiability and frankness, which are incongruous with a stereotypical idea of an artist: a willful, freakish, and self-righteous person. Felix here suggests to us that a new kind of modern art be possible. Gertrude is also a new woman who opposes to staying put under the patriarchal society. She is always wavering in and out of the house, searching for opportunities to quench her curiosity to see the world by breaking the bond of New England. Her ceaseless quest for independent values results in fortuitous encounter with a new species of artist Felix. Unlike Henry James's other novels, in which male characters assume a role of sophisticated "fortune-hunter," the union of Felix and Gertrude in The Europeans represents the compromise between two different cultures. According to Nietzsche, the birth of superman is possible by the union of Athens and Jerusalem. In other words, the matrimony of Felix and Gertrude means the commingling of his liberal arts and Gertrude's moral seriousness might contribute to the birth of the new culture.

• 영미문화
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.221-237
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• 2009

This paper analyzes the time-shift technique in Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. Conrad's manipulation of time in this novel is based on his aspiration for how 'to make you see,' which he believes is completed through the harmony form and substance in his works. So Conrad applies this technique which was used earlier by some writers such as Laurence Sterne to his Lord Jim to show its theme more effectively. In Lord Jim, the story consists of two parts; first, Jim jumps from a ship called the Patna and is deprived of his navigation certificate. Secondly, he wins the people's respect in Patusan in which his past related to the Patna remains hidden, but he faces his death by taking responsibility for the death of the chief's son in the island. These events in Lord Jim are not described in chronological order; that is, some events are depicted with the time-shift technique using flashback, association, or fragmentary memory to accelerate the speed of stories as well as to offer the actuality of the events. With this structure, the themes of Jim's story have something to do with his heroic actions and failures. Jim wants to be a hero and after failures he struggles to redeem himself only to fail. In particular, Jim's jump from the Patna is emphasized through the time-shift and it shows there is something incomprehensible in his action. Therefore, Conrad reveals in Lord Jim that Jim is one of us who not only are imperfect but also have the weaknesses inside that can unexpectedly emerge in an instant.

• 영미문화
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.185-219
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• 2009

This article aims to illuminate the comic characters and their humor in Dickens's novel David Copperfield in Bakhtinian point, and to clarify what the humorous characteristics are, and how they contribute to his reinforcement of socially critical messages in this novel. So far this novel has been called the only one of Dickens's comic novels, even though it includes lots of social critical meanings. But it is true that Dickensian critics couldn't make sure of the clear reasons why it is both very interesting and critical. Furthermore, it is also true that this novel has been criticized as a clumsy one in the realistic, psycho-analytic, dramatic angle. This approach to Dickensian comic characters through Bakhtinian fool, clown, and rogue concepts here could make up for or correct such criticisms, and reevaluate Dickens's humor and social criticisms in the context of general public culture. Bakhtin believes oppression by social ideologies prevent us from having good mutual relationships and divides our society. He thinks laughter liberates us from such oppression and restores our good relationships. As he applied his concepts based on the laughter of Middle Ages to Rabelais's novels, and examined what the authentically liberating power in Rabelais's laughter is, this article could clarify the liberating power of laughter by Dickens's comic characters, such as Mr and Mrs Micawber, Dick, Miss Betsey Trotwood and Miss Mowcher. In this novel, they often lead comic happenings, and such happenings are very similar to carnival-amusements including burning the dummy of the czar who has oppressed his or her citizenry. Especially, Dickens's comic characters's social criticisms, in the case of this novel, contain many complaints of social marginers, even though he has been labelled as being conservative politically. They always criticize the ideological absurdities in their society through the humorous words and behaviors in their comic happenings, like those of a carnival fool or clown in his or her amusements. This shows Dickens achieves both laughter and social criticism in David Copperfield by using Rabelaisian characterization-devices based on his general public culture. Like Bakhtin and Rabelais, Dickens seems to have believed that when we all truly liberate ourselves from the oppression of social ideologies, we can have desirable relationships between ourselves, and also solve social problems positively.

• 영미문화
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.239-272
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• 2009

Our investigation of the intricate relationship among nationalism, humanism, and imperialism begins from reading Song of Ariran, the auto/biography of Kim San recorded by Nym Wales, together with Margaret Drabble's fictional adaptation of Lady Hong's autobiography, The Memoirs of Lady $Hyegy{\breve{o}}ng$, in her novel The Red Queen, in which the story of Barbara Halliwell, a modern female envoy of Lady Hong, is interweaved with Lady Hong's narrative. In spite of their being seemingly disparate texts, Song of Ariran and The Red Queen are comparable: they are written by Western female writers who deal with Koreans, along with the Korean history and culture. Accordingly, both works cut across the boundary of fiction and fact, imagination and history, and the East and the West. In the age of globalization, Western women writing (about) Korea and Koreans traversing the historical and cultural limits inevitably engage us in post-colonial discussions. Despite the temporal differences--If Song of Ariran handles with the historical turmoils of the 1930s Asia, mostly surrounding Kim San's activities as a nationalist, The Red Queen is written by a twenty-first century British woman writer whose international interest grapples with the eighteenth-century Korean Crown Princess' spirit in order to reinscribe a story of Korean woman's within the contemporary culture--, both works appeal to the humanistic perspective, advocating the universal human beings' values transcending the historical and national limitations. While this sort of humanistic approach can provide sympathy transcending time and space, this 'idealistic' process can be problematic because the Western writers's appropriation of Korean culture and its history can easily reduce its particularities to comprehensive generalization, without giving proper names to the Korean history and culture. Nonetheless, the Western female writers' attempt to find a place of 'contact' is valuable since it opens a possibility of having meaningful communications between minor culture and dominating culture. Yet, these female writers do not seem to absolutely cross the border of race, gender, and culture, which leaves us to realize how difficult it is to reach a genuine understanding with what is different from mine even in these 'universal' narratives.

• 영미문화
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.1-29
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• 2018

Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup, published in 2001, well shows how the social issues have been changed in a way to reflect the South African society which is more complicated in the post-apartheid era. Examining the two different geographical territories between Johannesburg, South Africa and an unnamed nation in Middle East, putting aside the domestic racism between white and black, she extends her issue of racial other to global one with new rising issue of immigration in South African society. It seems that Gordimer's such issue is well represented by two main characters: Julie Summers who comes from a wealthy family and falls in love with Abdu, an illegal immigrant who was born from a poor country in Middle East and is now working at a garage in a downtown of Johannesburg with hiding his real name Ibrahim ibn Musa. Having an official relationship with Ibrahim and joining the regular meeting at the El-Ay (L.A.) Cafe where all participants can enjoy the freedom of expression/speech except for Abdu, she begins to have interest in his silence and his presence, orientalized as the Arab Prince for her imagination. Arriving at Abdu 's nation later, she also keeps projecting the 'less civilized' images to his nation where there are only desert, uneducated people, and dirty houses and streets. In doing so, Gordimer leads reader to a never-ending issue of Orientalism in the Western literature. Moreover, the writer attempts to create a female-centered community at the male-centered Islam community by marginalizing the presence of Abdu who finally leaves to America alone. As Julie is successfully acculturated to the unknown Abdu's community, she begins to place herself at the center of the community and plays a role as a mediator/communicator who can change/civilize it with her western knowledge of language and culture. By replacing the male-centered with the female-centered through Julie, Gordimer seems to be creating an idealized community with the notion of matriarchy. However, Gordimer places Abdu as an unstable subject who has to endlessly move back and forth for his undetermined national and cultural identity while Julie achieves the determined identity in both nations.

• 영미문화
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.207-232
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• 2014

Scholars have considered Chaucer's House of Fame mostly as an ars poetica, in which the poet explores new poetic principles and subject matters, while making few attempts to understand the poem in its historical and social contexts. Investigating the nature of the "tidings" that Chaucer suggests as the new source of his poetic inspiration, this paper argues that the house of Rumor was modeled after late fourteenth century English society that experienced increased appetite for news. The political upheaval during the period from the English Rising in 1381 to the reign of Henry IV in the early fifteenth century produced an unprecedented amount of written and oral propaganda. The proliferation of seditious rumors as well as protests and promulgations during this period indicates how seriously medieval society was engaged with the circulation of news. Particularly, the case of John Shirle in 1381 and the legend about the survival of Richard II demonstrate the subversive power of medieval rumor that often served as a political discourse with which people expressed their oppositions to government. Conspicuous in the activities of both the government and late medieval political protestors was the extensive use of writing. The posting of bills in public places continued until the fifteenth century, when such activities became so common and dangerous that the government had to issue proclamations forbidding the circulation of such seditious writings. The number of extant royal proclamations, written protests, and pamphlets demonstrates that already in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the notion of a discursive public space began to emerge. Whether written or orally transmitted, news and rumor circulated in late medieval England, creating a social space in which people shared their political opinions before the introduction of the early modern print culture. In The House of Fame Chaucer calls attention to the subversiveness of rumor, its potential as a public discourse, and the power of written communication in creating truth in order to appropriate these characteristics for his English poems.

• 영미문화
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.129-162
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• 2017

Ruth Ozeki(Japanese-American female novelist)?s recent novel, A Tale for the Time Being (2013) draws our attention because the fiction shows very interesting fictional experiments, especially in terms of post-humanism. Indeed, the novel is not a science fiction at all which has been, and still is, the typical fictional field employed in the discussion for the transhumanism and posthumanism. It also does not include any cybogs, robots, or aliens which provoke the posthumanism-related issues like mind/body, human/nonhuman, nature/culture relations. Indeed, it seems "merely" represent realistic day-to-day lives of ordinary people living in contemporary Japan and Canada, and in very minute and particular details at that. Indeed, the central action of the main characters of the novel seems very traditional, that is on the one hand writing a diary by a teenage girl who is counting the days and weeks before her suicide and on the other hand reading it by a female novelist who happens to find her diary several years later. Nevertheless, I would like to suggest that underneath this traditional narrative surface are simmering post-humanist and post-anthropocentric worldviews beyond liberal Humanism which takes human beings to be exceptional against human or non-human others. Not only in narrative contents and characterizations but also through narrative structure and strategies, the novel enacts post-humanist and post-anthropocentric worldviews which are interestingly drawn from both age-old Buddhist ideas and modern eco-philosophy and quantum physics. I would like to stress that what triggers the author's fictional experiments helping our rethinking and redefining "what human beings are" and "what the relation between humans and nonhumans" is not merely intellectual interests but her keen and passionate response to the heart-breaking pains and sufferings of human and nonhuman beings caused by the contemporary natural-artificial catastrophes and techno-scientific predicaments.