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
On July the 8th 1994 North Korea was struck with the heaviest grief imaginable. Their Great Leader, Comrade, Father and 'the Sun' of the nation passed away. The leader who had come to be seen as...Show moreOn July the 8th 1994 North Korea was struck with the heaviest grief imaginable. Their Great Leader, Comrade, Father and 'the Sun' of the nation passed away. The leader who had come to be seen as immortal had left his people behind, leaving the recently created state in the hands of his designated successor and son Kim Jong Il. In the poem cited above, the author expresses the passion North Koreans feel towards their leader. When a leader comes to decease, the admiration often moves on to his successor. Nevertheless, the warmth and obsession felt towards the deceased Kim Il Sung only grew stronger as time went by. The excessive public admiration and devotion for the founder of the North Korean state continued to bloom into what can now be seen as one of the strongest personality cults of the modern era. (Kim 158) This passion and admiration has been driven and is sustained by a sophisticated deployment of various forms of culture representing a very specific reading of North Korea's history that makes national history revolve around the life of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung. History, as Jordanova (2000, 4) explains, is not absolute, but always created and hence needs to be seen in perspective. In the case of North Korea; history is built around the Great Leader's personality cult, integrating the idea of an eternal leader into the past of the nation, and thus making them intertwine. North Korean history declares that there is no North Korea without the Great Leader. This historical narrative goes unchallenged as all media and culture are under the control of the Workers' Party of Korea, the founding and ruling party of North Korea (Britannica). Culture and history, under these monolithic circumstances does not amount to anything but another form of propaganda, used to create and manipulate Kim Il Sung's personality cult. Propaganda is the spreading of ideas and information with the purpose of influencing an institution, a cause, or a group of people (Britannica). It is a mode of communication through which a society can be manipulated and influenced. The target's opinion can be distorted in order to support a particular cause or belief. Throughout the years, propaganda has evolved into the form of texts, artwork and films. (White) Through propagated media and culture governments and authorities are able to secure their desired benefits. By carefully considering different types of culture and media in North Korea, the leader-focused construction of history can be put together as pieces of patchwork creating a single quilt. More specifically, an examination will be made of the length of measure taken in North Korea by it's authorities to install the profound belief in the immortality and benevolence of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung. This thesis will show how a personality cult is created and simultaneously analyze how it is maintained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, describing the various methods of maintaining a personality cult, achieved through the mobilization of cultural, media and the arts, all of which are adapted to a fabricated historical storyline in order to sustain the leaders' image. For example, written texts serve as tools through which the Workers' Party of Korea is able to adapt North Korean history to revolve around Kim Il Sung. Academic publications and journal articles use the power of words to project the authors' and the authorities' interpretation onto the public. Equivalently, visual art makes a contribution to the development of Kim Il Sung's personality cult. These arts include e.g. visual propaganda, portraits, badges and paintings. Besides written and visual works, performing arts also have a significant impact on the creation and preservation of a powerful personality cult, as can be found in theatrical performances such as opera, film, and television programs, all of which recite and relive the days of glory passed. This 'glory passed' presented to the nation through performances evidently has no other intent then to serve as another propaganda tool emphasizing the essentiality of Kim Il Sung's existence. (Kim 158 - 159) It is indisputable that in North Korea cultural products do not only serve the purpose of entertainment, but more importantly, are instruments for controlling and mobilizing society through the creation of Kim Il Sung's personality cult. Propaganda has been incorporated into all aspects of North Korea's culture, successfully intertwining Kim Il Sung into the nation's illusion of history. Looking more closely at the relentless determination to build a personality cult and the manner through which the Workers' Party of Korea successfully beclouded the population's perception of reality will now be further investigated.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)
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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
