• Title/Summary/Keyword: a woman discourse

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Private Desire against Public Discourse in Female Quixotism (『여성 퀵소티즘』에 나타나는 공적 담론과 사적 욕망의 충돌)

  • Sohn, Jeonghee
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.53 no.2
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    • pp.261-280
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    • 2007
  • This paper attempts to examine how woman's role defined by the public discourse took issue with private desires of an individual woman in Tabitha Gilman Tenney's Female Quixotism (1801). Tenney borrows and transforms the ideas of quixotism and picaresque from Don Quixote, which involve an inherent paradox in the post-Revolutionary America. The Republican Ideology emphasized women's crucial role as guardians of family virtue and molders of republican citizens. Therefore, women were not allowed to travel outside of the domestic space as freely as a male picaro could do. In fact, the"adventures"depicted in the novel are constituted of a series of courtship in which Dorcasina, the heroine, unceasingly tries but fails to find a husband fit for her romantic idea about love and marriage formed by novel reading. However, the process shows that a variety of socially disadvantaged groups as well as women were excluded from the public space of the post-Revolutionary America. This half-a-century quest does not end with a conventional happy marriage, but Dorcasina finds herself a disillusioned old maid, resigned to a life of charity. Yet the ending exposes social contradictions inherent in early Republic of America, by showing how an individual woman's life was prescribed and limited by the dominant public discourse.

The Shifts of Power in Gender Discourse: Approaching Bao Ninh's Short Stories and Svetlana Alexievich's Unwomanly Face of War from Feminist Narratology

  • Cao, Kim Lan
    • SUVANNABHUMI
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.133-160
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    • 2022
  • This paper examines narratives of women's marginal position in Bao Ninh's Short Stories and Svetlana Alexievich's Unwomanly Face of War from a feminist narratological approach. In analyzing voices of marginalized women, direct and indirect descriptions of women's beauty and pain, and private-public narratives of women's love stories, this paper aims to identify presentations of women's real authority in the text written by a male author, Bao Ninh, and in the one by a female author. The paper argues that juxtaposing these texts reveals an overturn of the traditional conception of sexual and gender differences. Specifically, distinguishing between male/female discourse does not show powerful /nonpowerful language, but recognizes the real authority of each type of discourse based on sexual differences. The writing also illustrates that masculine language becomes powerless and deficient in the women's world; meanwhile, in writing about herself, woman establishes a type of a powerful feminine discourse, which blends both emotional, enthusiastic, and gossipy characteristics of female language and direct, rational, and strong ones of male language. Thus, the feminists' radical segregation on male/female discourses to overturn masculine authority and create a language for women at par with men has been clearly shifted when comparing the two writers' texts based on the juxtapositional model of the comparative literature.

The Ideal Image and Fashion of the 'New Woman' in Korea in the 1920s and 1930s (1920-30년대 한국의 이상적 '신여성' 이미지와 패션)

  • Yi, Jaeyoon
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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    • v.64 no.7
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    • pp.172-183
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    • 2014
  • The term "new woman" (신여성 [Sinyeoseong], 新女性) refers to an idealized image of contemporary women during the so-called modern period in East Asia. In Korea, these "modern girls" were also referred to as modan (毛斷), or "cut-hair", reflecting changes in appearances that rejected the traditional value system in favor of "the new" in everyday life. Although it was used to refer to the perceived educated leaders of this new period, it also had the negative connotation of referring to frivolous women only interested in the latest fashion. The popular discourse on this "new woman" was constantly changing during this early modern period in East Asia, ranging from male-driven women's movements to women-driven liberal and socialist movements. The discourse often included ideals of what constituted female impeccability in women's domestic roles and enlightened views on housekeeping, yet in most cases the "new woman" was also expected to be a good wife and mother as well as a successful career woman. The concept of the "new woman" was also accompanied by an upheaval in women's social roles and their physical boundaries, and resulted in women repositioning themselves in the new society. The new look was a way of constructing their bodies to fit their new roles, and this again was rapidly reproduced in visual media. Newspapers, magazines, and plays had gained immense popularity by this time and provided visual material for the age with covers, advertisements, and illustrations. This research will explore the fashion of the "new woman" through archival resources, specifically magazines published in the 1920s and 1930s. It will investigate how women's appearances and the images they pursued reflected the ideal image of the "new woman." Fashion information providers, trendsetters, and levels of popular acceptance will also be examined in the context of the early stage of the fashion industry in East Asia, including production and distribution. Additionally, as the idea of the "new woman" was a worldwide phenomenon throughout the 19th and early 20th century, the effect of Japanese colonialism on the structure of Korean culture and its role as a cultural mediator will also be considered in how the ideal image of beauty was sought, and whether this was a western, colonial, or national preference.

The consideration of family policy through a discourse about modern motherhood (근대 모성담론을 통해 본 한국가족정책의 방향)

  • 서수경
    • Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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    • v.40 no.8
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    • pp.137-152
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourses about modem motherhood in Western und Korean society in order to find a new basis for the family policy. The general view that motherhood is merely natural ceased to be valid since the early 1980ties. Nowadays one is rather inclined to define motherhood as a social, cultural and historical fact which goes far beyond the biological dimensions. The concept of motherhood which has been useful to fulfil the industralisation in the modem times cannot be applied to the changed world of our times. The family policy which is closely connected with women must not start from the modem motherhood ideology but from the context of the changed life of woman in our times. I hope that this study could contribute to stimulating the discourse about the family policy which takes into consideration the changed living conditions.

Discourse on ‘Wise Mother and Good Wife’ in the 1920′s-1930′s Women′s Ambivalence about the Roles of Wise Mother and Good Wife - (1920-30년대 현모양처에 관한 연구 -현모양처의 두 얼굴, 되어야만 하는 ‘현모’ 되고 싶은 ‘양처’)

  • 전미경
    • Journal of Families and Better Life
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.75-93
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    • 2004
  • This study examined discourses on “wise-mother and good-wife” in the 1920s - 1930s by analyzing the magazine “Shinyeosung.” This study found the following: 1 “Wise-mother and good-wife” was the ideal type for the “new women” during the colonial period. Hut the role of a mother was far more important than that of a wife. 2. The dominant discourse at the time was that the “genuine” new woman was defined by her motherhood, and she could not have a job because raising children was the most Important task for her. Hut in fact, new women wanted to be a wife through free love and marriage. They wished to be a good-wife in the “new (modern) family” for their loving husbands. 3. The Ideas of “wise-mother” and “good-wife” arose from disparate backgrounds. A woman had to nurture her maternal aptitudes; but had to suppress her passion for free love and marriage. Although she had to learn Western methods of bringing up children instead of the traditional one, she was expected to practice traditional virtues of a wife, not Western attitudes. The role of a mother was decided by experts, but that of a wife was decided by husbands. The function of a good-wife was merely a clever handling of her husband, whereas the function of a mother was considered to require professional knowledge. 4. New women could differentiate themselves from “old women” through the roles of wise-mother and good-wife; nonetheless, those roles were forced by society. They did not have any other viable choices.

History, Trauma, and Motherhood in a Korean Adoptee Narrative: Marie Myung-Ok Lee's Somebody's Daughter

  • Koo, Eunsook
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.55 no.6
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    • pp.1035-1056
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    • 2009
  • Korean adoptee narratives have proliferated over the last ten years as adopted Koreans have begun to represent their own experiences of violent dislocation, displacement and loss in various forms of literary and artistic works, including poems, autobiographical works, novels, documentaries and films. These narratives by Korean adoptees have intervened in the current diaspora discourse to question further the traditional categories of race, ethnicity, culture and nation by representing the unique experiences of the forced and involuntary migration of adopted Koreans. For a long time, the adoption discourse has been mostly constructed from the perspectives of adoptive parents. Therefore the voice of adoptees as well as that of the birth mothers have not been properly heard or represented in adoption discourse. According to Hosu Kim, the U. S. adoption discourse, feeling pressured to deal with the stigma of the commodification of children, changed from viewing the adoptees as children who had been rescued from poverty and abandonment to considering them as a gift from the birth mothers. With the emergence of the gift rhetoric in transnational adoption, the birth mothers erased from adoption discourse have begun to be acknowledged as one of the central characters in the adoption triad. If Korean adoptees are the "the ghostly children of Korean history," the birth mothers are their "ghostly doubles" who "bear the mark of a repressed national trauma." Somebody's Daughter represents the female experiences of becoming an adopted child and of being a birth mother. In particular, the novel makes a birth mother, the forgotten presence in adoptee narratives, into a central figure in the triangular relationship created by international adoption. The novel historicizes the experiences of a Korean adoptee growing up in America as well as those of a mother who had suffered silently from feelings of unbearable loss, guilt, grief and from unforgettable memories. In addition, narrating the birth mother's story is a way to give humanity back to these forgotten women in Korean adoption history. Revisiting the site of loss both for a mother and a daughter through the novel is an act of collective mourning. The narratives about and by Korean adoptees force Korean intellectuals to reflect seriously upon Korean society and its underlying ideology which prevents a woman from mothering her own baby, and to take an ethical and political stand on this current social and political issue.

Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus: Colonized oppression and violence in a black woman's body (수잔-로리 팍스의 "비너스": 흑인여성의 몸에 나타난 식민주의적 억압과 폭력)

  • Park, Jin-Sook
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.253-270
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how Suzan-Lori Parks reveals colonized oppression and violence in a black woman's body in Venus. The body of Hottentot Venus is an 'object' of white male spectators' gazes and a dissection from a medical study. The report on her pathologic anatomy gives the audience the illusion that the body of a black woman is inferior to those of others. Not only 'subjective' aesthetics, but also 'objective' medicine makes us confuse 'fact' with 'truth' about black women. By publicly exhibiting her erotic body, Venus is represented as a singular emblem for nineteenth-century colonial discourse on race and sexuality. Her body stands for the powerful signifier of raped Africa. A distinctive feature of black Venus is her raciality. The ownership of her body is only transferred from Mother-Showman to Doctor Baron. She had no right to her ownership. Her body is an object of hatred and curiosity and at the same time a site which is represented by conflicting desires. Parks' eventual goal in Venus is to investigate 'hindsight' of Venus Hottentot, 'the past' and 'the posterior'. As the meaning of original chocolate can be regained, the insulted and damaged body of Venus should also be recovered and resurrected.

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Historiography of TV Documentary (TV의 젠더 역사쓰기의 가능성과 한계: 역사다큐멘터리를 중심으로)

  • Kim, Hoon-Soon;Kim, Suk
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.51
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    • pp.156-173
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    • 2010
  • This study analysed the narrative of and , two history documentary broadcasted on KBS, in terms of story-telling and discourse. And it also examined whether TV as mass media could provide an alternative interpretation against the dominant historical awareness. As a result, both programmes showed limitations on representing subversive point of view to the dominant ideology. At the story-telling level, firstly, they represented in a way of male-hero narrative though they were describing the history of woman, and while representing woman as a public figure they eliminated her feminity and individuality. Secondly, before evaluating woman as a historic figure they previously appreciated her appearance in a male-point of view. Thirdly, although they were telling the story of woman in a political view, they focused on love triangle, therefore failed to make her as a public figure. The discourses of both programmes were anchoring the existing historical interpretation instead of offering an alternative historical imagination. The narrator who were telling history at the studio in a omniscient viewpoint took a role as a meaning definer, placed at the highest rank in the hierarchy of discourse structure. Especially in , the dramatized images to cover lack of visual data helped anchor the patriarchal narrative and reduced the possibility of subversive interpretation on historic figure.

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A review of gender discourse in the Ghibli animation "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" (지브리 애니메이션 <가구야 공주 이야기>에서 나타나는 젠더 담론에 대한 고찰)

  • Kim, Ye-Eun;Kim, Soong-Hyun
    • Journal of Digital Convergence
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    • v.19 no.9
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    • pp.289-297
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    • 2021
  • Animation is a media reflecting social ideas, not only conveying information but also creating a new discourse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the social issues and gender discourse reflected in the media by analyzing the gender discourse inherent in the protagonist and surrounding characters, narrative characteristics, and background of the Ghibli animation "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya". As a research method for this purpose, figure out social problems related to gender performance, and analyze prior researches to derive a connection with the gender discourse in the animation. Grandfather is symbolic of a father who forces his daughter to follow his chosen happiness, and grandmother represents a mother who can not stop her husband. Stemaru is the character not in the original, posing a question of the problem of gender performance while failing to get married due to lack of sufficient wealth and honor. Princess Kaguya had been self-reliant and active like a modern woman at the beginning of the story. However, after being suppressed by society and people around her, the stereotyped gender performance forced Kaguya, who longed for the earth, to wish to return to the moon. Such social pressure happens in modern society. Gender performance is a systemic problem to be solved with systemic change. For this reason, constant consideration such as this paper is needed.

A study on Vietnamese Women in Korean Films and TV Dramas (한국 영화와 TV 드라마에 나타난 베트남 여성상 고찰)

  • Yook, Sang Hyo
    • The Southeast Asian review
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.73-99
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    • 2010
  • To properly answer the question 'Why have Vietnamese Women kept appearing in Korean Films and TV dramas?', We need to induce Postcolonial discourse along with historical and cultural similarities between Korea and Vietnam. It is because the relationship of two countries can be defined as a neocolonialism specially in view of economic relationship. Koreans need to locate themselves on the superior position by othering Vietnamese women, who are close enough to be compared and also distant enough to be othered. This paper is intended to bring their being in Korean films and TV dramas under the light of postcolonial discourse. According to the postcolonial concepts such as ambivalence, stereotyping and subaltern, Korean films and TV dramas are classified into three groups, which are Vietnam war melodramas, Horror movies based in Vietnam, and TV dramas with Vietnamese brides. War melodramas have been othering Vietnamese woman through ambivalence of the fear of Vietcom warrior and the fascination of exotic beauty. Horror movies, produced about 10 years later, brought the Vietnamese women back to Korean audience, stereotyping them into ghosts, which are incarnated through the suppression and eruption of sexual desire. The third group consists mainly of TV dramas. Their story usually evolves around Vietnamese brides migrating into Korea. The women are forced into the position of Subaltern, not representing themselves in their own voices. Facing multi-cultural society, our visual media are requested to modify their neocolonial approach of presenting Vietnamese women. To accomplish the goal, they have to find ways of storytelling to show the women in their everyday lives and help them to speak for themselves.