Home> Archive> 2017> Volume 7 Number 8 (Aug. 2017)
IJSSH 2017 Vol.7(8): 528-534 ISSN: 2010-3646
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2017.V7.879

Trauma Nationalism and Pop Culture: A Fantasy Analysis on Early Post-cold War Korea Films

Yang Liu

Abstract—This paper mainly analyzes Korea films in the early post-Cold war period (1991-2005), and selects 4 popular Korea movies as case studies, which are Shiri (1999), Joint Security Area (2000), Taegukgi (2004), Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005). Then it uses Bormann’s fantasy analysis method to explore how these films handle symbols and assign meanings to stories and express Korea people’s nationalism narratives. Fantasy analysis has theory roots from both communication and rhetorical criticism, and it involves three steps, which are fantasy theme, fantasy type and rhetorical vision analysis. Among which, fantasy theme is the basic unit of analysis. This study totally finds 10 fantasy themes and 3 fantasy types, and finally composes the rhetorical vision (Trauma nationalism) in Koreans movies. For conclusion, this paper argues that in the early post-Cold War period, Korea films avoid simplifying their ‘friend or foe’, blurring the enemies and state boundaries, and strengthening Korea ethnic group’s connections. Through these plots, these films uncover the traumas of Koreans, the old collective memory of ‘Cold War’ blends into the trend of pop culture, and old Cold-War ideological confrontations have also been expressed through the narratives of nationalism and humanity.

Index Terms—Trauma nationalism, fantasy analysis, early post-cold war, Korea films.

Yang Liu is with Faculty of Social Science, Communication department, University of Macau, China (e-mail: blossom719@hotmail.com).

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Cite: Yang Liu, "Trauma Nationalism and Pop Culture: A Fantasy Analysis on Early Post-cold War Korea Films," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 528-534, 2017.

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