• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.20
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• pp.241-274
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• 2010

Due to the remarkable changes in the early twentieth century, the new invention and technology impacted peoples' everyday lives and people started to use the word, modern, to apply specifically to what pertained to present times and to designate a movement in what was new and not old-fashioned-a condition of newness. In the present day, however, the fantastic cultural changes of a century ago have now become commonplace, and what was once considered radically new is no longer a reason to marvel. This paper considers what it mean to be modern, once the new is no longer new. This question seems to remain as complicated and inappropriate to ponder because the consideration and impact of modernity cannot simply end with the end of an era. This paper investigates how the interconnected nature of popular culture provides apt illustrations to reveal the ambivalent nature of modernity and postmodernity. In doing so, first of all, this paper pays attentions to the notion of modernity and popular culture which emerged together in the early twentieth century when technology and mass consumer culture were promoted over the world. Also, it examines how popular culture represents a complex of mutually-interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways as the image of modernity continues to build in a postmodern era. That is, popular culture is identified as a large amount of intertextuality or collective experiences due to its intermingling of complementary distribution sources and techonology. Thus, this paper explores that popular culture devotes itself other images or narratives instead of referring to the real world and its output revisits the contemporary or past times in other places, being a means to produce and reproduce the accumulated images of the modern which shapes ceaseless simulacra of modernity over complexities of modernity. In order to find a critical juncture of the complex networks of modernity and popular culture, this paper considers two places, Chicago and Gyeongsung in the 1920s and 1930s in which the rapid modern experience took place and the modern movement forced the two societies to join the mass consumer culture whether willingly or not. Next, this paper considers two movies released in 2002 and 2008 that exemplify the complexities of modernity in Chicago and Gyeongung of the 1920s and 30s: Chicago and Modern Boy. Both films have common themes of the 1920s and 30s such as violence, adultery, femme fatal, and criminal themes with the forms of musical, dance, drama, and romance. Through the textual analysis of both Chicago and Modern Boy, two films are compared in observing the similar and different ways in which two films deal with the theme of modernity when they are represented from the contemporary perspectives. More specifically, this paper questions how modernity is present in contemporary cultural forms such as commercial and hybrid genre films; and how these movies create a new image of modern by embodying the double coding. Ultimately, this paper aims at realizing the paradox of double edged modernity and its ongoing discourse that controls people's consciousness through the medium of popular culture.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.9-54
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• 2019

Since the birth of melodrama in the early Enlightenment era, it has flowed through various cultures and media. In order to grasp the principle of differentiation of melodrama and the direction of its change, a developmental approach to the formation process of melodrama is necessary. In this regard, this paper examines the formation process of modern melodrama and its aesthetic features around the time of the French Revolution. The modern melodrama was formed in the period between the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th century. It was born at the intersectional point of the contradictions of the modern imagination and the political paradox of the French Revolution, which demanded an autonomous citizenship but did not recognize a woman as a citizen. The aesthetic of women's sacrifice and tears reproduced in the modern melodrama is a political aspiration to restore a corrupt society by glamorizing a woman as a moral icon. This was an icon to save a society under divide and crisis and a coordination of emotions to conceal sexist violence in the politics of the exclusion of women. The aesthetic of women's sacrifice and tears reproduced in modern melodrama has consistently been considered under negative evaluation such as a play of moral hypocrisy and vulgar drama. However, the academic interest in melodrama in the 1970s has been amplified due to the "Sirk-melo" which is a transition to the new aesthetic of women's sacrifice and tears, encompassing not only women, but also races and classes. In modern society, entering the era of uncertainty, where various social problems, national disasters, and global disasters have become commonplace, 'the aesthetic of women's sacrifice and tears' are shifting from gender differences to various victim narratives. Reviewing new theoretical trends and changes of recent melodrama as well as analyzing specific works are left as follow-up tasks.Since the birth of the melodrama in the early Enlightenment era, it has flowed through various cultures and media. In order to grasp the principle of differentiation of melodrama and the direction of its change, a developmental approach to the formation process of melodrama is basically necessary. In this regard, this paper examines the formation process of modern melodrama and its aesthetic features around the time of the French Revolution.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.50
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• pp.295-318
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to define the 'caligraphy as a modern concept of art. For this purpose, it was necessary to exclude the elements betraying 'the caligraphy as a pure art' in reference to 'autonomy' as an indicator of modernity in order to reflect on the current topology of the caligraphy in our age. Checking the current conditions facing the caligraphy from the pre-modern, modern and post-modern perspectives will clarify the current topology of the caligraphy and further exploring 'the caligraphy as a post-modern art concept. To this end, this study defines the caligraphy 'as a pure formative art' and thereby discusses it in terms of nature and form. In terms of nature, the caligraphy should be subsumed into a spacial art, but it has a nature of a temporal art created and appreciated over time. Hence, among the spacial arts, the painting is most similar to the caligraphy, while among the temporal arts, the caligraphy is most similar to such rhythmic (of high mobility) or performing arts as music and dance. Merely, the painting does not reveal the flow of time on the canvas, while music and dance leave no residual in terms of audibility and visuality. All in all, the caligraphy is sort of 'temporal-spacial art' like dance in that the visible letters express the artist's sense of life on the plane over time like music. In terms of form, this study compares the caligraphy with engraving, wood print and character design to define the caligraphy as a pure art concept. The caligraphy as a modern art concept, namely, the autonomy of the caligraphy is associated with legibility and meaning in addition to the question whether it is an applied or a pure art. The legibility and meaning of the characters are not only the essential elements of the caligraphy but also are the factors limiting its autonomy, which must be a paradox. All in all, the legibility and meaning of the characters must be the key criteria for determining the caligraphy as a practical art or literary art or as a pure figurative art. In this context, this study discusses the caligraphy as a pure art by comparing it with the spatial art 'painting' and the temporal art 'music.' It might be impossible to define the caligraphy or a genre of art as an autonomous art of self-perfection and categorical identity. Moreover, any attempt to define the caligraphy would fail to interpret the caligraphy appropriately. Merely, we are obliged to position the caligraphy in the process of localizing 'their modernity' and thereby, discuss how to respond to their scheme.