문화연구를 통해 본 90년대 한국영화의 이데올로기와 정체성 - <결혼이야기>와 서편제>, <쉬리>와 <공동경비구역 JSA>를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The definition of culture changed over time due to new meanings being added to it in each era. In the modern era, culture is defined rather broadly, as a spiritual, intellectual product created by men who have a civilization that has escaped primitivity. This vague definition of culture makes defining Cultural Studies difficult. Thus instead of looking at cultural studies as a new or independent field of study, it is considered as an interdisciplinary field including various academic interests and research methods. As with other modern theories, cultural study has its roots in the established grand discussion, being affected by it and criticizing it. Cultural materialism, an offspring of Marxism, criticizes the relationship between structure and superstructure, claiming that they exercise overdeterminative regulation over each other. L. Althusser said that the mechanism created through overdetermining is ideology, and that the ceaseless struggle of ideology forms the core. Structuralism analyzed texts and tried to find a universal, specific principle that created meanings within the text. A. Gramsci stated that ideology constantly changes and continues to struggle in order to obtain hegemony by getting the general public’s consent. Culturalists also focus on theculture of the governed, who were left out of the established studies, changing the focus of cultural studies to mass culture. Cultural studies began as a result of such traditional, established studies with Stuart Hall in the center. After analyzing media, he stated that media simultaneously reflects and creates ideology. Thus the recipient uses dominant-hegemonic position, negotiated codes, and oppositional codes to decipher ideology shown by the media. Also within the massive trend of globalization in the modern world, a fusion of global and local cultures took place, and Hall said people today are experiencing a new diaspora. The methods used in the cultural study of ideology, identity and diaspora can also be applied to Korean film. The Korean films analyzed through cultural studies in this paper show the unstable identity of the 1990s. The current society is a post-modern one where the subject is lost, fragmented and actuality coincides chaotically with virtuality. Media is most influential to the general public and reflects their intentions best. Thus cultural studies that focus on media must grow further.