Cold War Culture As Depicted In North-South Korean Spy Films

In order to imagine what a peaceful Korean peninsula might be like it is necessary to eliminate Cold War culture and along with it the basic Cold War narrative, thinking and ideol ogy of approach and methodology. This dissertation uses aspects of comparative literature and culture and by taking as its source material North and South Korean spy films from different eras the dissertation is an in-depth analysis of the South Korean espionage film genre, factual accounts of female spies as depicted in various genres of literature looking at aspects that sp an the national temperament, use of language and cultural perspective. Furthermore, the study borrows theories from the different fields of psychology, sociology and feminist studies so tha t we may span the post/Cold War Eras and gain a multi-faceted close analytical reading of c ore factors of Cold War culture expressed in the depiction of non-fiction Korean War charact ers, and in doing so gain a full understanding of how the Korean War, post/Cold War period Korea developed its Cold War culture. This is in order that we might eradicate Cold War ide ology on the Korean peninsula and its culture that extols the virtues of prejudicial ethnocentri sm.The following is a breakdown of the contents of this dissertation which is given in thr ee main sections. The first and second chapters form the first section and take as their sourc e a reading of newly unclassified information on the Korean War and in light of Cold War c ulture compares post/Cold War South Korean war films in which the focus is how the Cold War narrative and how Cold War thought is portrayed. Korean War films form a textbook for understanding the society, culture and ideologies of Korea in the post/Cold War years. In the period just after the war movies were used as a tool for setting and broadcasting the official narrative, thereby reaffirming it. Furthermore, in the Cold War era films took on a key role in keeping alive the painful memory of the Korean War and acted as a reminder of the possi bility that war may begin again. Movies are an ideological battleground and would frequently be used to re-depict or rewrite events so as to construct national solidarity in the form of a collective memory and to promote a national anti-communist identity. Chapters three to six form section two, a study of the female spy in Cold War spy fil ms compared with non-fiction accounts of female spies and in doing so explores problems of female spy identity, subjectivity and gender. One chapter is devoted to a full study of two t ypical female spies, Soo-im, Kim and Hyun-hee, Kim, looking at how they are depicted in fil ms, accounts and other literature, thus drawing conclusions as to how the Cold War era natio nalist narrative redefined the stories of these two female characters.Female spies were called upon by the nation to play their part on the Cold War stage, forced to act out the spirit of sacrifice for the Motherland. This, however, is meaninglessly s ubjective because in actual fact as they are playing a certain role, due to the sexualizing of t heir bodily forms this forces them to become material and objective. Then, as their sexual fo rms express aspects such as corporal and spiritual, good and evil, and the’us and them’dual ity of thought, it is revealed that they are little more than the result of the transmission of C old War thought. If we think of Cold War thought as little more than two-sided thinking the n through these era-less depictions of female spies we discover that Cold War thought is basi cally violent, untruthful, illegal and is a mechanism for creating the subaltern.The third section is comprised of chapter seven, an analysis from the perspective of th e Diaspora and how they view post Cold War spy cinema, thus also reflecting on the structu re of the Korean War and Cold War and imagining a wished for peaceful future for the Kor ean peninsula. This chapter principally takes as its research focus recent spy films and factual accounts of female spies and their "songs of the Diaspora" looking at how people feel at he art towards future of peace on the peninsula. As the spies depicted were part of the Diaspora outside of the Cold War construct their version of events and writings often transcends the s imple black-and-white rhetoric of the Cold War and the zombie nature of the nationalistic voi ce. Therefore they are able to help us see through the Cold War constructs and they have th e potential to be a tool in erasing Cold War culture.In conclusion, through the study of Cold War historical fiction and sacrificial female s pies as depicted in Cold War and post Cold War Korean spy cinematography, this dissertation reexamines Cold War ideologies, how they are transmitted and the changes they undergo. Thr ough this discussion of Cold War culture the final subject dealt with in this dissertation is th at of how to eliminate Cold War culture and whether or not it is possible to construct a cult ure of peace.