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  3. No.28 (2017)
  4. The Matrix of S&M in Korean Cinema: Time, Space, Trauma, Power

The Matrix of S&M in Korean Cinema: Time, Space, Trauma, Power

Taeyun Yu: University of the Philippines Film Institute

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/

Abstract

Just as Jean Baudrillard predicted that a new era would arrive wherein sexual desire would emerge, the late ’90s in Korea were marked as the fin-de-siècle of sexual explosion in popular culture, in the transition of the culture from pre-modernism to modernism. Sex and nudity became prevalent properties in popular culture and film, as a window onto the world, also joined this parade by equipping its products with erotically provocative visuals and transgressive texts. This study aims to shed some light on the social meaning of sadomasochism (S&M) by viewing it as an expression of power relations (dominance/submission & discipline/punishment) within the larger social schema. This would involve the use of the body as the site where geopolitical conflicts are inscribed, in relation to the emergence of an authoritarian system that required masochistic acceptance of the concepts of dedication and self-sacrifice.

Keywords

Korean cinema, Korean War, trauma, Gwangju uprising, jouissance, “Sae”-maul movement

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
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Ateneo de Manila University

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International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

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