The “Good” Mother’s Self(ish)-Sacrifice: Violence, Redemption, and Deconstructed Ethics in Bong Joon-ho’s Mother (2009)
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This paper examines the permutations of ethical norms within the “good” mother- figure in Bong Joon-ho’s Mother (2009) in relation to South Korea’s historical relationship with redemption. As a symptom of anxiety that stems from a particularly oppressive modern history of political subordination, civil division, and economic struggle, South Korea has exhibited a pattern of retrospection—repetitions of communal overcoming and remembering— to combat national “failures” and redeem national sovereignty. Similarly, the “good” mother’s condition of possibility is maintained by a recurrent loop of responsibility that obligates not only perpetual selflessness, but also neverending guilt. Considering the “good” mother’s entrenchment in the parameters of nationhood, the film becomes an ideal site to interrogate the formation and viability of her sacrificial and redemptive moral framework. Looking beyond defining maternal identity within the scope of the national and historical, the film offers an opportunity to investigate how, reversely, this “retrospective” identity may also work to outline, or limit, the conditions of her ethical conscience. Bringing to the fore the “good” mother’s affective dependency within guilt and the subsequent moral twists, the paper presents the possibility of breaking from the totalizing nature of her self-sacrifice.
Abstract
This paper examines the permutations of ethical norms within the “good” mother- figure in Bong Joon-ho’s Mother (2009) in relation to South Korea’s historical relationship with redemption. As a symptom of anxiety that stems from a particularly oppressive modern history of political subordination, civil division, and economic struggle, South Korea has exhibited a pattern of retrospection—repetitions of communal overcoming and remembering— to combat national “failures” and redeem national sovereignty. Similarly, the “good” mother’s condition of possibility is maintained by a recurrent loop of responsibility that obligates not only perpetual selflessness, but also neverending guilt. Considering the “good” mother’s entrenchment in the parameters of nationhood, the film becomes an ideal site to interrogate the formation and viability of her sacrificial and redemptive moral framework. Looking beyond defining maternal identity within the scope of the national and historical, the film offers an opportunity to investigate how, reversely, this “retrospective” identity may also work to outline, or limit, the conditions of her ethical conscience. Bringing to the fore the “good” mother’s affective dependency within guilt and the subsequent moral twists, the paper presents the possibility of breaking from the totalizing nature of her self-sacrifice.
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