• Title/Summary/Keyword: public discourse

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The Active Way of Trauma: Receiving the Return of the Past (도래하는 과거를 수용하는 트라우마의 능동적인 방편)

  • Seoh, Gil-Wan
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.41
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    • pp.33-56
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    • 2015
  • Trauma studies have provided useful models for dealing with the catastrophic and disastrous events that an individual and collective group experience. Most important of all, the perspective of post-structuralist trauma study, including Cathy Caruth, became a paradigmatic model and it has been applied to almost all contexts of life. The perspective of this study model, which is called an "event-based model of trauma," focuses on the literal registration of the traumatic event and the accurate and immediate recall of the past. The person directly involved in the event becomes the passive bearer transmitting the truth of a traumatic event. From this perspective, the traumatic subject only undergoes and endures the event and cannot play an active role in constructing trauma and dealing with it. Eventually, the truth of trauma has to be obtained at the cost of the traumatic subject's autonomy and the possibility of his/her agency. The problem here is that the truth, which is reencountered through the literal return of the past, obtained at the cost of the subject's autonomy, strikes a rather fatal blow to the person, than gives help for resolving many of matters surrounding traumatic experience and curing trauma. This suggests that the active way of dealing with trauma on the part of the traumatic subject, rather than the traumatic event itself, is demanded. Furthermore, because more recently, images of disastrous events were viewed "live" by audiences and an immediacy to the event is replicated in public discourse about them, the event becomes more immediately traumatic and there is a more strong presumption that people regard themselves as traumatic victims than before. This is the reason that we must explore an active way dealing with trauma on more human position at this time. This essay aims to examine the limits of the paradigmatic model of trauma study, an "event-based model of trauma," critically through a literary, theoretical text in which it reveals how the literal return of the traumatic past have a fatal effect on the victim; and hopes to suggest "the narrative memory" as a way to deal with trauma from a more humanistic perspective.

The Counter-memory and a Historical Discourse of Reproduced Records in the Apartheid Period : Focusing on 『Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life』 (아파르트헤이트 시기의 대항기억과 재생산된 기록의 역사 담론 전시 『Rise and Fall of Apartheid : Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life』를 중심으로)

  • Lee, Hye-Rin
    • The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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    • no.74
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    • pp.45-78
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    • 2022
  • South Africa implemented apartheid from 1948 to 1994. The main content of this policy was to classify races such as whites, Indians, mixed-race people, and blacks, and to limit all social activities, including residence, personal property ownership, and economic activities, depending on the class. All races except white people were discriminated against and suppressed for having different skin colors. South African citizens resisted the government's indiscriminate violence, and public opinion criticizing them expanded beyond the local community to various parts of the world. One of the things that made this possible was photographs detailing the scene of the violence. Foreign journalists who captured popular oppression as well as photographers from South Africa were immersed in recording the lives of those who were marginalized and suffered on an individual level. If they had not been willing to inform the reality and did not actually record it as a photo, many people would not have known the horrors of the situation caused by racial discrimination. Therefore, this paper focuses on Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureau of Everyday Life, which captures various aspects of apartheid and displays related records, and examines the aspects of racism committed in South Africa described in the photo. The exhibition covers the period from 1948 when apartheid began until 1995, when Nelson Mandela was elected president and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was launched to correct the wrong view of history. Many of the photos on display were taken by Peter Magubane, Ian Berry, David Goldblatt, and Santu Mofoken, a collection of museums, art galleries and media, including various archives. The photographs on display are primarily the work of photographers. It is both a photographic work and a media that proves South Africa's past since the 1960s, but it has been mainly dealt with in the field of photography and art history rather than from a historical or archival point of view. However, the photos have characteristics as records, and the contextual information contained in them is characterized by being able to look back on history from various perspectives. Therefore, it is very important to expand in the previously studied area to examine the time from various perspectives and interpret it anew. The photographs presented in the exhibition prove and describe events and people that are not included in South Africa's official records. This is significant in that it incorporates socially marginalized people and events into historical gaps through ordinary people's memories and personal records, and is reproduced in various media to strengthen and spread the context of record production.

The Research Trend and Narrative Expandability of Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America -A Review Article: Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America (유럽과 북미에서의 접경지대 연구 동향과 서사의 확장성 -『유럽과 북미 지역 접경지대 연구의 세계화』 읽기)

  • Ban, Kee-Hyun
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.251-276
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this article is to critically read Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America to examine trends in border studies conducted so far in Europe and North America and to discuss the expandability and limitations of the narrative. It introduces a variety of case studies covering the borderlands of Europe and North America from ancient to modern times. It consists of a total of 10 chapters, in addition to the introduction chapter to clarify the purpose and definition of the collaboration and the short conclusion chapter on the prospects for the future of borderlands studies. This volume has some important implications for current borderland research in two main respects. First, it can introduce us we the areas and targets that the leading researchers from European and North American academia (usually the United States') have paid attention to. It also examines the current status of borderland research and predicts whether it will be possible to study various border areas where exist in other regions (especially in Asia) based on accumulating academic achievements, as well as the possibility of expansion of so-called 'globalization'. Second, it introduces the borderland as a conceptual space, beyond the border area as a physical space that is commonly thought of when it comes to 'border'. Cases of "conceptual borderlands" can be applied to a number of topics ranging from an individual's identities to the methods of governance, religions, economies, social institutions, families, labor issues, public health services and gender issues. There are, however, also some questions to be noted in the volume: the lack of consistent use of terminology, which can be considered general problems of collaboration studies; the fact that the authors still tend to understand borderlands within the imperialist discourse, perhaps because of their academic background is situated mainly in Europe and North America; the borderlands cases described here as the areas of conflict and struggle only. Nevertheless, the book is of significance in that it suggests a possibility of various borderlands studies and helps us to have better understanding of the current geopolitical situation imposed on the Korean Peninsula, which is located on the borderland between the continental and maritime powers.

Chronopolitics in the Cinematic Representations of "Comfort Women" (일본군 '위안부'의 영화적 기억과 크로노폴리틱스)

  • Park, Hyun-Seon
    • Journal of Popular Narrative
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.175-209
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    • 2020
  • This paper examines how the cinematic representation of the Japanese military "comfort women" stimulates 'imagination' in the realm of everyday life and in the memory of the masses, creating a common awareness and affect. The history of the Japanese military "comfort women" was hidden for a long time, and it was not until the 1990s that it entered the field of public recognition. Such a transition can be attributed to the external and internal chronopolitics that made possible the testimony of the victims and the discourse of the "comfort women" issue. It shows the peculiar status of the comfort women history as 'politics of time'. In the same vein, the cinematic representations of the Japanese military "comfort women" can be found in similar chronopolitics. The 'comfort women' films have shown the dual time frame of the continuity and discontinuity of the 'silence'. In Korean film history, the chronotope of the reproduction of "comfort women" can be divided into four phases: 1) the fictional representations of "comfort women" before the 1990s 2) documentaries in the late 1990s as the work of testimony and history writing, 3) melodramatic transformation in the feature films in the 2000s, and 4) the diffusion of media and categories. The purpose of this article is to focus on the first phase and the third phase in which the issue of 'comfort women' is represented in the category of popular fiction films. While the "comfort women" representations before 1990 were strictly adhering to the framework of commercial movies and pursued the sexual exploitation of "comfort women" history, the recent films since the 2000s are experimenting with various attempts in the style of popular imagination. Especially, the emergence of 'comfort women' feature films in the 2000s, such as Spirit's Homecoming, I Can Speak, and Herstory, raise various questions as to whether we are "properly" aware of issues and how to remember and present the "cultural memory" of comfort women. Also, focusing on the cinematic representation strategies of the 2000s "comfort women", this article discusses the popular politics of melodrama, the representation of victims and violence, and the feature of 'comfort women' as meta-memory. As a melodramatic imagination and meta-memory for the historical trauma, the "comfort women" drama shows the historical, political, and aesthetic gateways to which the "comfort women" problem must pass. As we have seen in recent fiction films, the issue of "comfort women" goes beyond transnational relations between Korea and Japan; it demands a postcolonial task to dismantle the old colonial structure and explores a transnational project in which women's movements and human rights movements are linked internationally.

The 50th Anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: present status and challenges (유네스코 세계유산 협약 50주년, 현재 및 과제)

  • LEE Hyunkyung ;YOO Heejun ;NAM Sumi
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.56 no.2
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    • pp.264-279
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    • 2023
  • The 50th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention was in 2022. In order to reflect on the present and future of the meaning of World Heritage, this paper examines the development and changes of the UNESCO World Heritage system. After promulgating the convention in 1972, the UNESCO World Heritage system prioritized the protection of heritage sites in the world that were at risk due to armed conflicts and natural disasters to bequeath heritage to the next generation. In addition, the UNESCO World Heritage's emphasis on Outstanding Universal Value represents the particular culture of human beings formed during a certain period of time, and acts as a significant source of soft power in public diplomacy. The UNESCO World Heritage might be perceived as a shared heritage that has not only become a channel to understand various national values, but also an effective medium to convey one of UNESCO's main principles, that is, peacebuilding. However, the UNESCO World Heritage is now at the center of conflicts of heritage interpretation between many stakeholders related to invisible wars, such as cultural wars, memory wars, and history wars as the social, political, and cultural contexts concerning World Heritage have dramatically shifted with the passing of time. Paying attention to such changing contexts, this paper seeks to understand the main developments in UNESCO World Heritage's discourse concerning changes to the World Heritage Operation Guidelines and heritage experts' meetings by dividing its 50-year history into five phases. Next, this paper analyzes the main shifts in keywords related to UNESCO World Heritage through UNESDOC, which is a platform on which all UNESCO publications are available. Finally, this paper discusses three main changes of UNESCO World Heritage: 1) changes in focus in World Heritage inscriptions, 2) changes in perception of World Heritage protection, and 3) changes of view on the role of the stakeholders in World Heritage. It suggests new emerging issues regarding heritage interpretation and ethics, climate change, and human rights.

The Definition of Outer Space and the Air/Outer Space Boundary Question (우주의 법적 지위와 경계획정 문제)

  • Lee, Young-Jin
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.427-468
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    • 2015
  • To date, we have considered the theoretical views, the standpoint of states and the discourse within the international community such as the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space(COPUOS) regarding the Air/Outer Space Boundary Question which is one of the first issues of UN COPUOS established in line with marking the starting point of Outer Space Area. As above mentioned, discussions in the United Nations and among scholars of within each state regarding the delimitation issue often saw a division between those in favor of a functional approach (the functionalists) and those seeking the delineation of a boundary (the spatialists). The spatialists emphasize that the boundary between air and outer space should be delimited because the status of outer space is a type of public domain from which sovereign jurisdiction is excluded, as stated in Article 2 of Outer Space Treaty. On the contrary art. I of Chicago Convention is evidence of the acknowledgement of sovereignty over airspace existing as an international customary law, has the binding force of which exists independently of the Convention. The functionalists, backed initially by the major space powers, which viewed any boundary demarcation as possibly restricting their access to space, whether for peaceful or non-military purposes, considered it insufficient or inadequate to delimit a boundary of outer space without obvious scientific and technological evidences. Last more than 50 years there were large development in the exploration and use of outer space. But a large number states including those taking the view of a functionalist have taken on a negative attitude. As the element of location is a decisive factor for the choice of the legal regime to be applied, a purely functional approach to the regulation of activities in the space above the Earth does not offer a solution. It seems therefore to welcome the arrival of clear evidence of a growing recognition of and national practices concerning a spatial approach to the problem is gaining support both by a large number of States as well as by publicists. The search for a solution to the problem of demarcating the two different legal regimes governing the space above Earth has undoubtedly been facilitated and a number of countries including Russia have already advocated the acceptance of the lowest perigee boundary of outer space at a height of 100km. As a matter of fact the lowest perigee where space objects are still able to continue in their orbiting around the earth has already been imposed as a natural criterion for the delimitation of outer space. This delimitation of outer space has also been evidenced by the constant practice of a large number of States and their tacit consent to space activities accomplished so far at this distance and beyond it. Of course there are still numerous opposing views on the delineation of a outer space boundary by space powers like U.S.A., England, France and so on. Therefore, first of all to solve the legal issues faced by the international community in outer space activities like delimitation problem, there needs a positive and peaceful will of international cooperation. From this viewpoint, President John F. Kennedy once described the rationale behind the outer space activities in his famous "Moon speech" given at Rice University in 1962. He called upon Americans and all mankind to strive for peaceful cooperation and coexistence in our future outer space activities. And Kennedy explained, "There is no strife, ${\ldots}$ nor any international conflict in outer space as yet. But its hazards are hostile to us all: Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again." This speech seems to even present us in the contemporary era with ample suggestions for further peaceful cooperation in outer space activities including the delimitation of outer space.