‘느낀다’라는 전쟁

Abstract

Constructed over the past two years, the front lines of hatred and anti-hatred, feminism and anti-feminism, and the multiple minority politics have emerged as the most radical arena of politics in Korean society. In the center of these lie issues such as affect, media, and the body connected to such media. This situation inevitably requires the construction of a new media-affect theory. With this awareness, it is worth taking a reference from The Affective Power, written by Mamoru Itoh. According to the author, the process of information must not be discussed only on the level of recognition or perception. Since information does not merely work within thecognitive layer, the concept must include the layer of the virtual. In other words, “it must survey a vast area, including both articulate to inarticulate knowledge, as well as the fine folds of affects.” In this context, Itoh goes beyond the limit of cognitive and intellectualism-based attitude and adds affect / affection as an important critical concept to the understanding of media, or the “bag of information.” This leads to the construction of a kind of“media-affect theory” through the re-interpretation of the communication theory of the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde. Based on the discussion of Itoh Mamoru, this paper explores the issue of new feminist subjects that emerged in a series of events within Korean society, such as the popular Twitter hashtag “#I’m_feminist,” mirroring of the controversial online feminist community, a memorial movement following the death of a woman victimized by an alleged woman hater, and the most recently popular hashtag“#sexual_violence_in_XX_community.” By transplanting the gender perspective in the media-affect theory, it intends to reconstruct a media-affect theory necessary for Korean society of today. Through this process, this paper aims tosuggest a concept of collective response by reconsidering collective intelligence; explore the transfiguration of habits and the roles of critics; observe the scenes where public / nation is being reorganized. Finally, it will imagine the possibility of cyber public space in a theoretical sense.