• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.49
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• pp.59-93
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• 2017

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the relationship between cinema and Giorgio Agamben's aesthetics and philosophy. Intersecting Agamben's key concepts including gesture, mediality, biopolitics, historicity, and profanation with historical and aesthetic dimensions of cinema, I argue for his ambivalent view on cinema and visual media. On the one hand, Agamben linked cinema and visual media to his discussion on biopolitics and spectacle as he considered them as apparatus for capturing and controlling gestures. On the other hand, he also argued that cinema could restore the image with capacity to preserve and recuperate gestures based on his consideration of montage as cinema's key aesthetic and technical component (an operation of profanation) and his Benjaminian thought on the ways in which montage suspended linear flow of images and activated an alternative memory of them. Drawing on history of cinema and optical devices in the 19th and early 20th centuries as well as examples of found footages of filmmaking predicated upon stoppage and repetition of images, I argue that Agamben's concept of potentialities can be extended into his thought on cinema and visual media apparatuses in general.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.47
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• pp.53-76
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• 2017

This paper is a study on the tasks to be carried out by Tsushima clan who invited the envoy -the 38th Munwihaeng- from Korea in 1747, and the process and results. This envoy sent out for the purpose of congratulating Tokugawa, Yoshimune's retirement and Tsushima lord's return home, and also negotiate about Korean Diplomatic Envoys to Japan coming in the future. In late 1745, Yoshimune retired, and Ieshige inherited the position of Shogun. Then in 1746 the Edo Shogunate ordered the Tsushima clan to invite the Korean Diplomatic Envoy to Edo between April and May two years after. To the Korean Diplomatic Envoy's invitation, many stages were necessary. In additon, Korea insisted on following the precedent in exchange with Japan. This time, throne of this new Shogun occurred due to retirement of the former Shogun. In the last 100 years, the history that the former Shogun died and the new Shogun reigned continued. For that reason, Korea had no record of sending letters and gifts to the old Shogun who retired. Because there was no precedent, Korea was unable to smoothly respond to Japan's request. This paper considers the negotiation process with Korea and the Tsushima clan, makes a prestige of the shogunate, in order to be recognized from the shogunate.

• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.48
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• pp.421-446
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• 2012

The purpose of this paper is to shed light onto the historical significance and limitations of the Tsukiji Little Theater's modern performances. The Tsukiji Little Theater holds a position of great importance to the history of both Japanese and Korean modern theater. Some, however, are under the completely opposite impression. There are also mixed opinions about whether the Tsukiji Little Theater is a "model example" of the modern theatrical movement or a "bad example". Based on this controversy, we look into the definitive characteristics of the Tsukiji Little Theater based mostly on "the controversy over translated foreign plays", "the controversy of foreign plays versus original plays", "the value of kabuki" and "Shinpa as a rival". This paper looked into the differences in controversy over translated foreign plays in the Tsukiji Little Theater and the controversy in existing translated foreign plays. It mostly looks at the "casuistry of foreign plays" and the "cultural engineering theory of foreign plays"to get a grasp on the controversy surrounding existing translated foreign plays. Meanwhile, the "internally critical meaning" towards the original plays of renowned writers was strong in the controversy of foreign plays in the Tsukiji Little Theater. Kaoru Osanai defined the 1920s as a dark period, and persisted that because of the activity of the Shingeki movement, foreign plays were needed instead of low-level original plays. This study examines the characteristics of original plays and foreign plays publicly performed at the Tsukiji Little Theater to analyze the "controversy of translated foreign plays versus original plays". The Tsukiji Little Theater mostly put on shows with a strong sense of resistance or that defied the old times. This caused there to be a lot of emphasis put on the rebellious mindset towards old conventions and ideologies for most of the plays, both foreign and original, and the problem arises that little mind was paid to the integrity or beauty of the works. In looking at the "value of kabuki", this paper looked into Kaoru Osanai, who was deeply involved in kabuki actors. He evaluated traditional Japanese arts highly not because of the literary value of their scripts, but because he recognized the value of how they were performed. In order to create a new spectacle, music, dance and mime was taken in from countries around the world, and kabuki was regarded highly as a means of expression on stage. Finally, we also examine the recognized reasons for treating Shinpa as a rival. There is a relationship between these reasons and a complex about the audiences they drew. The Shinpa performances always had many spectators and were successful, but those at the Tsukiji Little Theater were so unpopular with the public that it was hard for them to financially run their theater group. The empty seats in their theater constantly made the modern intellectuals in the Shingeki movement feel inferior.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.195-218
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• 2016

This paper focuses on the terminology of the dictionary as an encyclopedic element in the Buddhist language. The previous study on Buddhist language can be divided into a philosophical approach to the language itself, a review of the linguistic perspective of a specific monk, and a linguistic examination of the Buddhist language. The linguistic examination of the Buddhist language is further divided into analysis of certain Buddhist scriptures, and a study of vocabulary used throughout the Buddhist sphere. The Buddhist vocabulary in the existing Korean dictionary is found in specialized areas such as name, place name, history, and Buddhism. By advancing the generalized words of the terminologies, the meanings of the terminologies and the general words are described as polysemy. It is possible to identify the degree of transition from terminology to general word depending on the distribution of senses. In the case of Buddhist vocabulary, the usage as a general language and as a Buddhist term was given priority, and vocabulary was also derived from a Buddhist term, although it was described as a general language. If a dictionary is changed according to the language unit it contains, the difference in a Buddhist terminology for each dictionary, and a conflict between the existing academic research result and the prior description, will need to be resolved through the collaboration of religious experts, linguists, and lexicographers.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.85-107
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• 2016

Cho Ji-hoon was a leading figure on the discussion of recognition on Han Yong-un, particularly the post-liberation period. During the Japanese colonial era, he addressed Han Yong-un as the representative of national poet, and evaluated Han's poems as the models of rebellious nationalistic poetry. Such evaluation by Cho set the precedent of basic perspectives and methodologies on how to recognize Han Yong-un in the present day. This paper analyzes three studies on Han Yong-un, conducted by Cho ji-hoon. We also examine how Cho created his logic of recognizing Han as a national poet, and his poems as nationalistic poetry. Accordingly, this paper has separated recognitions on poet studies and work studies, and further explored how each recognition has consistency with Cho ji-hoon's historical and literary perception. As a result, the following has been concluded: the basis of Cho ji-hoon's recognition on the life and works of Han Yong-un was premised on Cho's understanding of the world from a standpoint of history of ideas, the concept of nation was regarded as an absolute value that binds disparate ideas together, and the combination of nationalism and poetry has been expressed through the logic of nationalistic poetry and the notion which equalizes the poet to a classical scholar. It was further concluded that such equalizing logic contains some logical contradictions derived from integration between universal rights and national sovereignty, and nation and Buddhism. Therefore, it can be said that other possible interpretations on the role of a poet were not fully discussed, but remain bounded. Last but not the least, this paper critically tries to perceive Cho's recognition on Han Yong-un, and accentuates the necessity of new interpretations of Han's poems, apart from those based on nationalism.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.69-106
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• 2016

Early marriage in contemporary society has brought about many problems. The practice is encouraged by gender inequality, poverty and social norms. It reproduces social power imbalances including increased economic vulnerability of women, low educational attainment of girls, gender inequality at home and in the labor market, physical and sexual violence against women and their health problems. The Ethiopian government increased the minimum legal age of marriage for women from 15 to 18 years, by revising its family code in 2000 and newly adopting a criminal law in 2005 that includes punishment against any harmful tradition. Nonetheless, early marriage is still widely practiced in many parts of rural Ethiopia. This is because the practice has long been embedded and deeply rooted in the lives of the people. Earlier literature on early marriage in Ethiopia tends to focus only on women's experiences and regard that all early-married people, particularly women, are unhappy with their lives. This paper attempts to explore the issue of early marriage through voices of people with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, in order to address the limitations of the previous literature. This article aims at examining why early marriage has occurred in Ethiopia and how it has affected family life and women's educational attainment, focusing on the case of Meki town. As seen from this study, it is true that early marriage generally had negative influences on the lives of women. However, it is equally true that some men are also victims of the practice while some women have improved their lives by means of it. This implies that we need to listen to the voices of diverse people when we examine early marriage.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.44
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• pp.239-281
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• 2016

This article explores the fate of futurism not only by tracing the entire process from the birth and decline of Russian futurism in the early 20th century and the so-called "Korean futurism" in the early 21st century, but also by delving into how their characteristics were shaped. In the first chapter, we investigate four groups of Russian futurism - Ego-Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, Tsentrifuga, and the Mezzanine of poetry, which were born in the age of utopianism before the Revolution. In the opera Victory Over the Sun, which was the culmination of the Zaum project of Cubo-futurists, we can find the initial shortcomings at the levels of language (Kruchenykh), music (Matyushin) and decoration and costume design (Malevich). In the second chapter, we examine chronologically how the term 'futurism' appeared in Korean literature history. In Korea, the term 'futurism' was born following the naming and classification of critic Kwon Heok-Woong, not by the voluntary manifestation of experimental poets such as Hwang Byong-Seung, thus this specific situation provoked stormy polemics between critics for futurism and critics against futurism in the Korean literary world. These polemics on futurist poetics have led to considerations of the relation of criticism to poetry.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.381-413
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• 2015

This article aims to trace a historical trajectory of "Humanism" as a Modern scientific concept in the light of Michel Foucault's genealogy. Generally, we believe that Humanism is a natural and eternal idea for mankind, because no one doubts that he or she is not included in the category of a "Human Being." On the contrary, according to French philosopher Foucault, the Idea of Humanism, or anthropocentrism, appeared only in the Modern Age, from the 16th century downward. Before the Renaissance, human beings did not occupy the most important status in Nature, and only existed as natural beings. As soon as mankind was liberated from the superstitious of fear and religious dogma, the concept of "Human Being" is supplied with new meanings and values. The famous maxim, such as, "Man is the lord of creation" constitutes modern human science as an inviolable category of modernity. However, Foucault tried to illuminate the hidden sides of humanism, and gave us the strict warning on the end of the human beings, which turned out to be an object of Modern knowledge. If there would be no reason to maintain a knowledge system of Modernity, in other words, Modernity as knowledge would lose its validity and we could give up Humanism as a heavy burden. Moreover, it is very clear that we are confronted with the critical moments of radical skepticism on the meaning and value for Humanity. That means that we need to think about the new transformations of Human Beings, which will probably appear in the forms of "Non-Humans," "Machines (Deleuze & Guattari)," or "Post-Humans" etc. At the present time, we cannot know if it will be positive, or negative for mankind. We should look back at the history of Humanism from a genealogical perspective, which is why we have to investigate the conceptual trajectory of Humanism in this moment.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.43
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• pp.171-206
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• 2016

Russian anarchist thinker P. A. Kropotkin had a significant impact on the school of thought, the literary field and the anarchist movement in East Asia in the early 20th century. This paper examines the history of the translation of Kropotkin in terms of the routes and paths of translation in colonial Korea in comparison with those in Japan and China. It is a known fact that the acceptance of Kropotkin in colonial Korea is owed to pioneering translation works in Japan, but it appears that there have been various transformations and magnetizations in the process of translating the texts into the Korean language. Despite a disturbing censorship, the works of Kropotkin, such as "I appeal to the youth ("Aux Jeunes Gens" in French)", were imported, translated and distributed by various routes throughout the 1920s and there were various versions of translated Korean texts. At this point, it is noteworthy that there are works which were translated from Chinese texts about Kropotkin, such as the works of Yu Seo (柳絮), and it can be said that there is a relationship between Korean translations and Chinese original texts. Since the 1930s, the phenomenon of the appropriation of Kropotkin as a litterateur and critic rather than an anarchist thinker is particularly apparent, and this allows us to understand that Kropotkin became a major pathway to interpret Russian literature in East Asia. In colonial Korea, translations of Kropotkin were generally via Japan and China, but the process of translation also showed the struggle to accept and adapt 'the foreign text' into the Korean language.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.46
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• pp.355-377
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• 2017

Compared with other Altaic languages, Japanese and Korean languages are much closer to each other in grammar, and also to Ryukyuan language. According to the literature, Korean people are the first foreigners to record Ryukyuan language in a written form. In the passage "pronunciation interpreting the Ryukyuan Kingdom" from A Journey to the Eastern Countries (1512), Korean people perfectly preserved the pronunciation and meanings of words and sentences in Ryukyuan language in both Korean and Chinese languages, which is an extremely valuable material. Unfortunately, the later time period witnessed stagnation after a prominent beginning. In order to clarify the language family to which Korean belongs to, it is necessary to thoroughly compare Korean language with Japanese and Ryukyuan languages. Different from lexis, grammar underwent a slow and gradual process of variation. A comparative study of the three languages can provide strong evidence for defining the language family of Korean. Based on this rationale, this paper starts from the comparison of grammar elements of these three languages, aiming at case markers including the nominative case markers and the accusative case markers, and observes the procedures and functions diachronically. Based on the examples from the medieval data, it is found that the nominative case markers and the accusative case markers of these three languages vary from each other in forms and origins. Although they show some similarities in functions, it can be conjectured that there is no cognate for the three languages in the history.