Literature and film in Cold War South Korea : freedom's frontier /

Crafted from the author's dissertation, this book uses the relationship of word and image in literature and film as a means of understanding post-1945 Korean culture in the context of the preceding history. With an eye toward understanding "what is Korean," chapter 1 establishes the parameters of discussion but the best analysis is in chapter 4; here Hughes (Columbia Univ.) uses Korean language and long extracts of text artfully. Chapter summations are helpful since the density of detail can bog down those unfamiliar with the subject. Unfortunately, the editing is poor: words are omitted, structure is awkward, redundancies are frequent. The English and Korean bibliography is excellent but heavy on Said, Habermas, Derrida, and Foucault, despite the fact that scholars now acknowledge the limitations of those theorists in terms of Asian cultural history. Because Hughes assumes readers have extensive knowledge of Korean writers, films, history, language structure, and topics in general--including how North Koreans were "experienced in their absence" in southern images, study, and ideas--this is a book for specialists only. --Kate Lynass, University of Maryland University College