Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

The 20th century was may be a century of warfare; it was also a century of refugees and immigration, as
Hannah Arendt argued in The Origins of Totalitarianism. In the 21st century the issue of the refugee has
reached to a crisis point, but is the situation still the same? After imperialism, colonialism and then postcolonialism,
multiculturalism and assimilationism, the issues now need to be reconsidered. Looking back
over the history of how refugees and immigration has been treated in media art, this paper examines how
recent media art explores the current global situation, which responds to what Giorgio Agamben called
“bare life.” In examining how art or art activity are addressing this situation, I will also ask what is the
meaning of art in contemporary society, focusing on some contemporary media and art works of Christoph
Schlingensief, Ai WeiWei, Banksy Kyunchome and other artists.
Hyangjin Lee
Declaration of Idiot: Cinema of Censorship in 1980s South Korea
Declaration of Idiot (1984) is an accidental masterpiece of South Korean national cinema that offers an
unconventional expression of the absurdity and oppressive nature of the film censorship that was imposed
during Korea’s second military dictatorial regime (1981-1987). The director Lee Jang-ho said he never
intended to make a political statement. He has even remarked, tongue in cheek, that the film was so strictly
regulated that it was made “by the government, not [himself].” The film is a black comedy that deals with
the everyday struggles of listless youths in the fast developed society, ridiculing its the radically increased
gap between rich and poor. With its road movie style and its unusual narrative structure filled with oddball
characters – not to mention its dearth of A-list stars – the film had all the makings of a commercial failure.
Yet, it enjoyed immense popularity amongst young audiences. This study will examine this ironic victory of
director Lee and his accidental masterpiece, Declaration of Idiot, focusing on the conflicting relationship
between revolutionary film culture and oppressive censorship in 1980s South Korea.
4N
Transgressive gender acts (Chair, Kirsty Seymour)
Yunji Park
Masculine Girl Prince and the Sexual Transgressor in 1950s South Korea
The 1950s has been regarded as a barren decade in Korean history when culture was limited to expressing
the hardship of postwar years. Such evaluation, however, is largely based on studies of male intellectual
scholarship. Economically more empowered than previous times, women figured in contemporary cultural
discourses more conspicuously than ever, embodying conflicting social values. In my analysis, I examine one
of the distinctive ideals of womanhood: the Girl Prince, the masculine actress who played a male hero in
Women’s National Drama, Yŏsŏng Kukkŭk and her role as sexual transgressor by explicitly revealing her own
masculinity. Through the transgression of patriarchal social customs, I argue that the Girl Prince blurs
traditional definitions of gender and sexuality. Calling into question what it meant to be feminine and
masculine, actresses in the Women’s National Drama played both male and female roles, granting women a
greater range of sexual expression. This paper’s queer reading of the Girl Prince resists traditional
interpretations that reduce her to a commercially motivated woman masquerading in men’s clothes, instead
of situating her as a figure of liberation whose marginalized sexuality contributes to a subversion of gender
roles.
Kameljeet Kaur Transgressive acts and the female body
Despite domestic violence cutting across race, culture and class, the category of “honour crimes” isolates
domestic violence in South Asian communities as a culturally-specific form of violence. This paper
interrogates the use of “honour” to illustrate the ways in which honour crime becomes a site through which
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