This study aims to deeply analyze the emotional confrontation and antagonism created by the division system, explore the potential of integrative narratives to overcome these issues, and propose a novel approach called "Unification Humanities Content"...
This study aims to deeply analyze the emotional confrontation and antagonism created by the division system, explore the potential of integrative narratives to overcome these issues, and propose a novel approach called "Unification Humanities Content" (UHC). By analyzing the narrative structures of division films, the research identifies how division narratives function as barriers to trust and communication between North and South Korea. Furthermore, it concretizes the mechanisms of narrative transformation through which integrative narratives overcome these barriers, enabling reconciliation and cooperation. This study seeks to address the scars of division and propose a practical narrative direction for forming a new community.
The study analyzes the narratives of division films, focusing on the emotional confrontations and antagonism perpetuated by the division system. Division narratives construct feelings of severance, loss, and hostility through themes such as war, ideological conflict, and separated families, playing a role in reproducing antagonism within the division system. Particularly, division narratives repeatedly represent and reinforce traumatic past experiences, widening psychological gaps and hindering societal integration. These narratives, internalized through popular culture and political discourse, exacerbate mutual distrust and antagonistic perceptions between the two Koreas.
In contrast, integrative narratives are narrative approaches aimed at overcoming the conflicts and wounds created by division narratives. By fostering empathy and communication, integrative narratives dismantle antagonistic emotions and aim to establish new relationships. Integrative narratives directly address the scars of division, turning them into processes of reconciliation and cooperation while focusing on emotional solidarity and trust-building between the people of North and South Korea. Whereas division narratives are characterized by conflict and severance, integrative narratives transcend this oppositional structure, offering reconciliation and solidarity as narrative transitions for new community formation. This study explores the antagonistic relationship between division and integrative narratives and concretizes the narrative foundations of UHC.
Division films are chosen as the analytical focus of this study because they most vividly depict the realities of division on the Korean Peninsula, visually exposing both the antagonistic emotions generated by the division system and the potential for integration. By representing the scars and conflicts of division through narrative, these films allow audiences to experience the structural problems and emotional issues of division while also providing turning points that suggest possibilities for reconciliation and cooperation.
The research analyzes films representative of division and integrative narratives. For division narratives, films such as <Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War> and <The Front Line>are examined. <Taegukg > emphasizes the formation of severance and antagonistic emotions through the deepening of familial conflicts and losses caused by war, revealing core characteristics of division narratives. The Front Line highlights the futility of war and the repetitive representation of antagonistic emotions through the exhaustion of humanity.
For integrative narratives, films such as <Welcome to Dongmakgol> and <Escape from Mogadishu> are analyzed. These films present narrative transitions of integrative narratives by overcoming the scars of division and enabling the formation of new communities through pure human exchanges and the dismantling of ideological barriers.
The methodology includes analyzing the narrative structures of each film to derive the core events and interactions between characters in division and integrative narratives. It also compares and analyzes the narrative mechanisms that form severance and antagonistic emotions in division narratives with the transformative moments in integrative narratives that propose possibilities for reconciliation and cooperation. Additionally, the study discusses how these narratives contribute to either reinforcing or dismantling the division system in popular culture.
Based on the analyzed structures of integrative narratives in division films, this research systematizes the narrative strategies for UHC. Division films, through integrative narratives, provide critical narrative resources for confronting the scars and antagonistic emotions of division and exploring possibilities for reconciliation and cooperation. Integrative narratives, rather than merely denying ideological conflicts, deconstruct oppositional structures and include key narrative transitions that foster emotional solidarity and trust.
This study systematizes the characteristics of integrative narratives into the narrative strategies of UHC. First, the "narrative of empathy" starts by understanding and resolving the pain and wounds of others, dismantling antagonistic emotions. This is evident in <Welcome to Dongmakgol>, which focuses on pure human relationships to dismantle ideological antagonisms. Second, the "narrative of reconciliation" emphasizes overcoming the scars of division and forming new communities through cooperation. For instance, films like <Taegukgi> provide a foundation for this narrative through efforts to overcome familial conflicts and losses. Third, the "narrative of healing" involves processes of letting go of division trauma, mourning past wounds, and enabling emotional transitions toward the future.
UHC reflects the core elements of integrative narratives, providing concrete narrative structures that resolve emotional gaps between North and South Koreans and enable the formation of new relationships. It dismantles entrenched structures of division and implements a new narrative model aimed at reconciliation and coexistence. Such content goes beyond mere information delivery, offering narrative devices that foster empathy and immersion to reshape perceptions of division issues and establish practical narrative foundations for trust recovery and cooperation between the two Koreas.
This study emphasizes that UHC, designed around integrative narratives, can serve as a crucial medium for resolving emotional gaps and forming new communities between North and South Korea. Through various forms of popular culture (films, dramas, webtoons), UHC enhances accessibility, heals division trauma, and contributes to trust recovery between North and South Koreans. For example, the "narrative of empathy" can help both sides understand each other's wounds and discover shared identities through stories. Additionally, the "narrative of reconciliation" establishes social cooperation through storytelling centered on common goals. UHC can be expanded into interactive content via cultural exchange programs, civic education, and digital platforms, serving as a medium to imagine peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.
This thesis analyzes the structural characteristics of division and integrative narratives in division films and explores their narrative strategies for UHC. The results show that division narratives solidify severance and antagonistic emotions through war and ideological conflicts, functioning as narrative mechanisms that widen psychological gaps between North and South Korea. In contrast, integrative narratives dismantle these antagonistic emotions and form new relationships centered on empathy and reconciliation, transcending oppositional structures. These narrative transitions provide essential insights for designing UHC, which can function as a mechanism for trust and communication between North and South Koreans. This study highlights the potential of UHC, centered on integrative narratives, to facilitate emotional communication and trust recovery, ultimately contributing to the imagination of peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.