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Dal Yong Jin
Simon Fraser University
Keywords:
Korean cinema, Hunger Games, Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon, Class Struggle, Textual Analysis, Comparative Analysis
Abstract
By critically engaging with Marxist notion of class struggle in contemporary films utilizing the bow and arrow as their signifier, this paper textually analyzes two films in order to find distinctive characteristics of Western movies and non-Western movies. Since the textual analysis becomes very important to understanding how media texts might be used in order to make sense of the world we live in—meaning it is significant to contextualize it within our life and/or society, this paper investigates the ways in which the major themes have developed and what their representations are. It therefore compares and contrasts these movies in terms of their major themes, in particular the ways in which these two films portray capitalism, either internally or externally. It especially examines how the bow and arrow symbolize class struggle either within a country or between countries in order to map out the major differences that the arrows represent.
Author Biography
Dal Yong Jin, Simon Fraser University
Dal Yong Jin finished his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has taught in several institutions, including the University of Illinois in Chicago, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Simon Fraser University. His major research and teaching interests are on globalization and media, new media and online gaming studies, transnational cultural studies, and the political economy of media and culture. He is the author of two books entitled Korea’s Online Gaming Empire (MIT Press, 2010) and Hands On/Hands Off: The Korean State and the Market Liberalization of the Communication Industry (Hampton Press, 2011). Jin also edited two books and a journal special issue, including The Political Economies of Media (Bloomsbury, 2011), and Global Media Convergence and Cultural Transformation (IGI Global, 2011). In addition, he has published about 40 journal articles and book chapters in several scholarly journals and books, including Media, Culture and Society, Games and Culture, Telecommunications Policy, Television and New Media, International Communication Gazette, Continuum, Information Communication and Society, and Javnost-the Public. He is currently analyzing the shifting media business paradigm, from convergence to de-convergence, in the communication industries, including both audiovisual and telecommunications. Meanwhile, he is writing a book about intellectual history of political economy in North America, which will be the result of SSHRC-funded research.
