8월 9일 영예올강의는 Milwaukee의 Wisconsin 대학의 백윤석 교수님께서 “Between Love and the Moral Law: The Figure of the Fatal Mother in South Korean Cinema"라는 제목으로 강의를 해주셨습니다.

짧은 기간 안에 압축적 성장을 한 대한민국은 기술이나 교육, 정치적으로 괄목할만한 성장을 이루었으나 한편으로 아직 완전히 현대화 되지 않은 면이 존재하고 있는데, 이는 한국인들의 좀 더 강력한 법질서와 보편적 정의에 대한 갈망으로 드러난다고 할 수 있습니다. 한국영화도 이런 필요성에 직면하여 영화를 통해 사랑하는 사람을 지키려는 열망과 도덕적 정의 사이의 비극적 충돌을 보여줌으로써 한국사회에서 정의의 보편적 개념을 설정하는 어려움을 파악하게 할 뿐 아니라, 가족적 결합을 넘어서 공정함과 사회질서로 이동해야 할 필요성을 강조하고 있다는 내용이었습니다. 예로 든 영화 ‘시’와 ‘친절한 금자씨’도 잠시 감상할 수 있는 강의였습니다.

강의 후 영예올 신임 임원들 인사가 있었고 다과를 즐기며 교수님과의 대화시간, 앞으로의 활발한 영예올 활동을 위한 대화도 이어졌습니다.

"Between Love and the Moral Law: The Figure of the Fatal Mother in South Korean Cinema"

by Prof. Peter Yoonsuk Paik, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

[Profile]

Peter Yoonsuk Paik was born in Korea in 1968 and moved to the United States with his parents when he was four. He grew up in California and received his A.B. in Comparative Literature from Brown University and his PhD. from Cornell University. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, where he has served as chair of the Department of French, Italian and Comparative Literature. Paik is the author of From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe, which is currently being translated into Korean. He is currently at work on a study of the new South Korean cinema.

[Abstract]

South Korea is understood to have experienced modernity in a compressed form - it has succeeded in becoming an industrialized country and joined the ranks of the world's advanced economies in only forty years, whereas the process of industrialization unfolded over the course of two hundred years in the US and in Western Europe. But the experience of compressed modernity has meant that while South Korea has demonstrated remarkable achievements in technology, education, and political reform, there are still aspects of South Korean society that are not fully modernized. Perhaps the most significant area where South Korean society has yet to realize modernity is revealed by the desire of many South Koreans for a stronger rule of law and a universal conception of justice. Rule of law and an impartial idea of justice are nevertheless concepts that have grown out of a particular set of traditions, values, and institutions that has proven difficult to duplicate in countries outside of the West. Yet, South Korean filmmakers have confronted the necessity for rule of law and a modern, universal form of justice in movies that depict moral crises in which the protagonist is torn between the justice demanded by the moral law and their desire to protect their loved ones. The opposite of moral law in films such as Lady Vengeance (친절한 금자씨, 2006), directed by Park Chan-wook, and Poetry (시, 2010), directed by Lee Chang-dong, is the attachment to one's children. The challenge of accepting a universal conception of justice becomes revealed as a tragic conflict, in which one is forced to choose between protecting one's loved ones and upholding the moral law. It is by bringing us face to face with tragic conflict that South Korean cinema enables us to grasp the difficulties of establishing a universal conception of justice in South Korean society, while emphasizing the necessity of moving beyond familial affiliations to create a fair and just social order.