Korean society has made great strides forward in gender representation in the last decade, yet mainstream media often encourages stereotypes and binary gender roles. However, the genre conventions...Show moreKorean society has made great strides forward in gender representation in the last decade, yet mainstream media often encourages stereotypes and binary gender roles. However, the genre conventions of historical fusion and fantasy combine elements of imagination and otherness that can engage in discussion on gender and represent gender in an alternative, more open, way. It addresses a contemporary issue yet is not bounded by the restrictions of today’s society. To analyze the potential positive representation of the genres, this thesis analyzes the Korean historical fantasy fusion drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (hereafter Moon Lovers) (2016). In order to study the alternative representations within mainstream media, this thesis looks at how the series’ representation of gender is in line with gender normativity. The leading research question is: Does Moon Lovers break gender normativity? The study was conducted through film analysis and guided by gender theory. In conclusion, Moon Lovers does not break with gender normativity. However, the potential of the genres to represent gender in an alternative way still require further study.Show less
This thesis compares the gender dynamics of romantic comedies in both North and South Korean cinema. The genre is a relatively recent development in both countries and as is the general tendency,...Show moreThis thesis compares the gender dynamics of romantic comedies in both North and South Korean cinema. The genre is a relatively recent development in both countries and as is the general tendency, also in the Korean case(s) confirms the existing social hierarchies and gender biases. This thesis finds that both North and South Korean cinema uphold patriarchal hegemony, despite the very different socio-political context within which these films are created.Show less
In this thesis, a comparative analysis of the depiction of Kim Il Sung and the depiction of Kim Jong Il in North Korean thematic paintings (chujehwa) is conducted in order to determine how these...Show moreIn this thesis, a comparative analysis of the depiction of Kim Il Sung and the depiction of Kim Jong Il in North Korean thematic paintings (chujehwa) is conducted in order to determine how these paintings reflect the personality cults of the two leaders and whether there are any differences and similarities in the way the two leaders are depicted.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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This study attempts to reconstitute the trajectory of the reception of Western classical music in the late-colonial era Korea by employing Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital. How did the...Show moreThis study attempts to reconstitute the trajectory of the reception of Western classical music in the late-colonial era Korea by employing Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital. How did the recipient classes acquire and secure Western musical taste as a new form of cultural capital and what kinds of aspects facilitated this process? In order to shed light on the multilayered colonial context behind this phenomenon, Arjun Appadurai’s five ‘scapes’ concept is applied to the following method of historical research: to examine, evaluate, and analyze official documents, contemporary newspapers, magazine articles, and advertisements, as well as previous studies on the history of Western music in Korea. This approach examines the reception of Western music from various angles. This research is a study of both ‘colonial modernity’ and the sociology of music, grafting the research framework of area studies onto that of musicology.Show less
This thesis uses a collection of North Korean printed posters to question the existing understanding of gender politics in North Korea studies. It does so by combining gender theory with a...Show moreThis thesis uses a collection of North Korean printed posters to question the existing understanding of gender politics in North Korea studies. It does so by combining gender theory with a synchronic and diachronic visual analysis of a selection of posters. In doing so, it adds in diversifying an all too often monolithic understanding of North Korea.Show less
In the course of my thesis I will explore ideas surrounding the ownership and meaning of tradition and national identity from the perspective of the nation and the community, in the specific...Show moreIn the course of my thesis I will explore ideas surrounding the ownership and meaning of tradition and national identity from the perspective of the nation and the community, in the specific context of makkŏlli culture in South Korea. Paying particular attention to the works of Eric Hobsbawm, Stephen Vslatos, Dean MacCannel, and Richard Sennet, I seek to illuminate the ways in which the nation and community speak to one another and to a larger, global audience through cultural expression and a renegotiation of national tradition. The recent revival of interest in makkŏlli began with small communities of brewers and has expanded through craft movements leading to a modern re-invention of the practice. However, the beverage only gained attention domestically after it gained popularity abroad in 2009. As governing elites have become aware of the economic power embedded in associating national identity with a particular ‘brand’, certain aspects of popular or traditional culture have been mobilized to serve this end. In the process we encounter a double dynamic between small community actors and larger political entities both interested in the same objects, in this case makkŏlli — yet their motivations and interests speak to entirely different, and often contradictory concerns.Show less
This thesis makes an attempt to define North Korean comic books and situate them in the context of North Korean cultural production. Then, using the visual language of comics theory developed by...Show moreThis thesis makes an attempt to define North Korean comic books and situate them in the context of North Korean cultural production. Then, using the visual language of comics theory developed by Neil Cohn, the dialect of visual language used by Ch'oe Hyŏk is analysed and identified by looking at the graphic structure, morphology and narrative grammar. Drawing on Cohn's data, some comparisons are made with the attentional panel categories and filmic shot types of American and Japanese visual language. Based on this, there is an extrapolation as to possible influences on the comics work of Ch'oe Hyŏk.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
In this study, An Kuk-sŏn (also known as Chŏngang,1876-1926), a leading writer of the Greater Korean Empire period, is regarded as one prototype of Korean reformist intellectuals in the face of the...Show moreIn this study, An Kuk-sŏn (also known as Chŏngang,1876-1926), a leading writer of the Greater Korean Empire period, is regarded as one prototype of Korean reformist intellectuals in the face of the global expansion of imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on An’s Chŏngch’i Wŏnnon (政治原論, Basic Principles of Politics, 1907), the first modern political science textbook in Korea, the study explores the adoption of modern Western political science, which some of these intellectuals regarded as a means of national survival. This study also revalorizes Chŏngch’i Wŏnnon and the act of translation, the most common way of learning the West yet has been undermined in the discourse of nationalist historiography, by applying the frameworks of translation studies.Show less
