Parameters of Disavowal: Colonial Representation in South Korean Cinema

Jinsoo An

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2018

Parameters of Disavowal

Colonial Representation in South Korean Cinema

Jinsoo An

Volume 1 in the series Global Korea

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520968103

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Contents

About this book

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

The colonial experience of the early twentieth century shaped Korea’s culture and identity, leaving a troubling past that was subtly reconstructed in South Korean postcolonial cinema. Relating postcolonial discourses to a reading of Manchurian action films, kisaeng and gangster films, and revenge horror films, Parameters of Disavowal shows how filmmakers reworked, recontextualized, and erased ideas and symbols of colonial power. In particular, Jinsoo An examines how South Korean films privileged certain sites, such as the kisaeng house and the Manchurian frontier, generating unique meanings that challenged the domination of the colonial power, and how horror films indirectly explored both the continuing trauma of colonial violence and lingering emotional ties to the colonial order. Espousing the ideology of nationalism while responding to a new Cold War order that positioned Japan and South Korea as political and economic allies, postcolonial cinema formulated distinctive ways of seeing and imagining the colonial past.

Author / Editor information

An Jinsoo :

Jinsoo An is Assistant Professor of Korean Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Under the Banner of Nationalism: The Changing Imagery of Anticolonial Leadership Open Access Download PDF	14
2. Film and the Waesaek (“Japanese Color”) Controversies of the 1960s Open Access Download PDF	35
3. The Manchurian Action Film: A New Anticolonial Imaginary in the Cold War Context Open Access Download PDF	52
4. In the Colonial Zone of Contact: Kisaeng and Gangster Films Open Access Download PDF	76
5. Horror and Revenge: Return of the Repressed Colonial Violence Open Access Download PDF	107
Coda: After 2000 Open Access Download PDF	125
Notes Open Access Download PDF	133
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	165
Index Open Access Download PDF	173

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 204

eBook

Published: June 8, 2018
ISBN: 9780520968103