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Between Science and Politics: Science Fiction as a Critical Discourse in South Korea, 1960s–1990s

Between Science and Politics: Science Fiction as a Critical Discourse in South Korea, 1960s–1990s A positivist vision of science fiction as a discourse closely bound to science and technology has been influential in South Korea ever since the first flourishing of the genre in the 1960s. Using that normative vision as a reference, the present essay investigates the ways in which select science-fictional texts have actually represented the technoscientific enterprise in South Korea in the period spanning the 1960s through the 1990s. As the analysis suggests, the heyday of positivist-oriented science fiction in the country was largely limited to the 1960s, which was a time when Koreans looked keenly upon science for its utopian promise of development and modernization for the nation. As later years brought dictatorship and forced industrialization, however, a marked shift toward dystopia and social protest became evident in cultural texts that critically depicted technoscience and modernization as tools of oppression rather than as progress and liberation. The historical existence of this more critical vein of science fiction, it is argued, attests to the genre’s hitherto underappreciated potential for fruitful engagement with the political and social challenges of modernization both globally and within South Korea’s technologically saturated society. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Korean Studies Duke University Press

Between Science and Politics: Science Fiction as a Critical Discourse in South Korea, 1960s–1990s

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Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
ISSN
0731-1613
eISSN
2158-1665
DOI
10.1215/21581665-6973354
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A positivist vision of science fiction as a discourse closely bound to science and technology has been influential in South Korea ever since the first flourishing of the genre in the 1960s. Using that normative vision as a reference, the present essay investigates the ways in which select science-fictional texts have actually represented the technoscientific enterprise in South Korea in the period spanning the 1960s through the 1990s. As the analysis suggests, the heyday of positivist-oriented science fiction in the country was largely limited to the 1960s, which was a time when Koreans looked keenly upon science for its utopian promise of development and modernization for the nation. As later years brought dictatorship and forced industrialization, however, a marked shift toward dystopia and social protest became evident in cultural texts that critically depicted technoscience and modernization as tools of oppression rather than as progress and liberation. The historical existence of this more critical vein of science fiction, it is argued, attests to the genre’s hitherto underappreciated potential for fruitful engagement with the political and social challenges of modernization both globally and within South Korea’s technologically saturated society.

Journal

Journal of Korean Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Oct 1, 2018

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    Ch’oe, Aesun
  • Hagwŏn ŭi haeoe ch’uri kwahak sosŏl ŭi suyong mit changnŭ punhwa kwajŏng
    Ch’oe, Aesun
  • Uju sidae ŭi kwahak sosŏl: 1970-yŏndae adong chŏnjip ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Ch’oe, Aesun
  • Contemporary Korean Literature: From Victimization to Minjung Nationalism
    Choi, Hyunmoo Wells,
  • Kwahakchŏk aegukchuŭi wa hwansang ŭi cheguk: Haksaeng kwahak chi surok Han’guk kwahak sosŏl ŭi chihyŏngdo
    Cho, Kyesuk Pak, Y.
  • Aidŭl ŭn modu ttŏnanda
    Djuna, Djuna,
  • Hŏkkaebi sanyang
    Djuna, Djuna,
  • Mimesisŭ
    Djuna, Djuna,
  • Nŭboe pyŏnjugok
    Djuna, Djuna,
  • SF munhakchang ŭi hyŏngsŏng kwa p’aendŏm ŭi munhwa silch’ŏn
    Han, Sanghŏn
  • Kori wŏnjŏn 1-hogi ‘haek e taehan much’aegim ŭi sanmul’
    Im, T’aehun
  • Five Bandits
    Kim, Chiha Taizé, Manoa
  • Nae sarang sipcha tŭraibŏ
    Kim, Yŏngha Kim, Yŏngha
  • Chaeang pujo
    Kim, Yunju
  • Ch’och’anggi Han’guk SF ŭi sŏn’gujadŭl
    Ko, Changwŏn
  • Kwahak ŭi yŏngdo, wŏnjat’an kwa chŏnjaeng
    Kwŏn, Podŭrae Hwang, Chongyŏn
  • Soviet Science Fiction and the Ideology of Soviet Society
    Nudelman, Rafail Peterson, Nadya
  • Han’guk manhwa ŭi hwansangsŏng kwa kŭndaesŏng: Kŭndae manhwa ŭi sijak esŏ 1990-yŏndae kkaji SF rŭl chungsim ŭro
    Pak, Inha Pak, Y.
  • The Colonial Origin of Korean Realism and Its Contemporary Manifestation
    Park, Sunyoung
  • Saibŏ p’ŏngk’ŭ, kŭrigo k’ŏmp’yutŏ sedae ŭi kŭl ssŭgi
    P’yŏnjip, Kihoekpu Yi, Y. et al
  • Sci-Fi Epic Interstellar Becomes Sensation in S. Korea
  • Beyond Representation and Simulation: Surviving the Age of Mediation and Its Failure in Kim Young’s Quiz Show
    Shin, Haerin
  • T’onggye ro pon autbaundŭ 15-yŏn
    Sim, Hanga
  • Kwahak sosŏl tonghohoe ‘Hait’el’ ŭl ch’aja
  • Mun Yunsŏng ŭi Wanjŏn sahoe wa mirae ŭi kŏnch’uksul
    Son, Chongŏp
  • Han’guk SF yŏnghwa ŭi ch’urhyŏn kwa chŏn’gae: 1960-yŏndae kodik SF wa sonyŏn SF rŭl chungsim ŭro
    Song, Hyojŏng Pak, Yuhŭi
  • Sirhŏmsil ŭi mich’in kwahakcha wa chegukchuŭijŏk hyangsu: 1960-yŏndae Han’guk kodik SF yŏnghwa yŏn’gu
    Song, Hyojŏng
  • ‘Chŏn kungmin ŭi kwahakhwa undong’ ŭi ch’urhyŏn kwa soetoe
    Song, Sŏngsu Im, Chongt’ae Hong, Sŏnguk Chŏng, Segwŏn
  • The Cultural Construction of Korean History
    Wells, Kenneth M. Wells,