the sensibility of the adopted: trauma and childhood in the contemporary literature and cinema of

218 Pages·2016·2.39 MB·English

by  Eunah Lee

THE SENSIBILITY OF THE ADOPTED:
TRAUMA AND CHILDHOOD IN THE CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND CINEMA
OF EAST ASIA AND ITS DIASPORA

By

Eunah Lee

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

English – Doctor of Philosophy

2016
ABSTRACT

THE SENSIBILITY OF THE ADOPTED:
TRAUMA AND CHILDHOOD IN THE CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND CINEMA
OF EAST ASIA AND ITS DIASPORA

By

Eunah Lee

My study delineates the persistence of a predominant nostalgic mode and the affect of
orphanhood, in the literary and visual texts of East Asia and its Diaspora—Japan, South Korea
and the People’s Republic of China and their Diaspora in the West—which I will describe as
“the sensibility of the adopted.” In my dissertation, I import Kirby Farrell’s understanding of
trauma as an imaginative trope that reflects the shock of modernization and a post-traumatic
mode that is conveyed through narrative structures. I also apply Cathy Caruth’s psychoanalytical
approach, which is to consider stories of trauma as a belated experience, which reflects the
characteristics of trauma itself, incomprehensible but returning to haunt the survivor. I argue that
the pervasive nostalgic mode and the affect of orphanhood created through the selected
narratives of trauma, of grieving the loss and striving in vain to recover it, constitutes a
compensatory attempt to reshape and recover from the trauma of postwar nation-building.
My dissertation is comprised of four chapters—the first chapter on the extreme cinemas
of South Korea, the second on the horror and extreme cinemas of Japan, the third on novels of
diasporic writers of East Asian descent living in the West, and the fourth on transnational art
films from China. These four chapters deal literally and figuratively with issues surrounding
traumatized childhood and youth—in particular the recurring motif of the orphaned and a
metaphor for the transcultural adoption of Western modernity in East Asia and its Diaspora.
Each chapter has a different focus on the ways in which narratives of trauma are
structured, creating the post-traumatic mode, and the ways in which the impact of
incomprehensible traumatic events is transmitted through various tactile and/or empathic paths,
yet the four chapters are developed conceptually and interrelated across the themes they explore.
In these generically and nationally organized chapters, I analyze the ways in which the thematic
representations of the traumatized share a bridging of aesthetics and ethics, poetics and politics.
Copyright by
EUNAH LEE
2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank my dissertation director and other guidance committee members, who have made
vital contributions toward my completion of this dissertation. My dissertation director Sheng-mei
Ma’s pioneering intellectual works enabled me to explore and develop my own fields of study
and a number of critical angles regarding the subject of this dissertation. His diligence as a
scholar and creativity as a writer always inspired me to pursue the same qualities in myself.
Personally he has been a wise mentor; for example, whenever I encountered obstacles, I was
reminded of his advice to “turn your weakness into strength.” His advice made me rethink and
reconsider any difficulties for me to transform them into my personal merits as a writer and
researcher. Stephen Rachman has given me wonderful suggestions and many critical questions
for all my dissertation chapters, as well as much advice and help in my pursuit of a career. I
deeply appreciate his time and contributions as a close reader of my chapters, and his guidance
on matters relating to my career. I admired and learned from Catherine Ryu’s dedication and
perseverance as a teacher and a scholar, and I am very grateful for her support and care, which
strengthened me to be a more invested and prepared presenter and writer in English. A
compassionate and kind mentor, David Bering-Porter has given me much inspiring feedback and
suggestions for my chapters, sharing with me his interest in extreme and horror films. Patrick
O’Donnell also gave me encouraging feedback as well as insightful questions for me to think
further on my project. In addition, without the unconditional love and support of my family and
friends, this dissertation would not be possible. I deeply appreciate my mother Kyung-ae Wang’s
advice and encouragement, and the care and empathy of my sisters Eunji Lee and Eunyoung Lee.
My good friends and incredible mentors, Lili Selden and Sandra Beals, have shown me
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tremendous support and love, motivating me and sharing with me the joy of intellectual curiosity.
I thank every one of them, for their kindness, help, and love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………….viii

INTRODUCTION: Diasporic Subjectivities: Reconsidering East Asia and its Diaspora in a
Global Context……..……….…….………………………………………………………1

CHAPTER 1: Trauma, Excess, and the Aesthetics of Affect: The Extreme Cinemas of Chan-
Wook Park……..……………………………………………………………………….. 33

CHAPTER 2: Inherited Trauma and Indigested Modernity: Returned Child Ghosts and
Wronged Women in J-horror and Extreme Cinema of Japan…………..…………….…68

CHAPTER 3: The Sense of Deception: Adoption Narratives and Appropriated Trauma in
Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life and Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans….…102

CHAPTER 4: The Cultural Trauma in Capitalizing China: The Aesthetics of Rupture in Chen
Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine and Lou Ye’s Suzhou River………………...……….152

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………201

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Still from Oldboy………………………………………………………………………40

Figure 2: Still from Oldboy………………………………………………………………………41

Figure 3: Still from Oldboy………………………………………………………………………44

Figure 4: Still from Oldboy………………………………………………………………………46

Figure 5: Still from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance ………………………………………………51

Figure 6: Still from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance ………………………………………………51

Figure 7: Still from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance…………………………………………….…54

Figure 8: Still from Lady Vengeance…………………………………………………………….62

Figure 9: Still from Ringu………………..…..…………………………..……………….…..….87

Figure 10: Still from Ringu……………..…..……………..…….………..…………………..….88

Figure 11: Still from Ringu……………..…..…………………..…….…..…………………..….88

Figure 12: Still from Ringu……………..…..…………………..…….…..…………………..….89

Figure 13: Still from Ringu……………..…..…………………..…….…..…………………..….89

Figure 14: Still from Audition……………………………………………………………………95

Figure 15: Still from Audition……………………………………………………………………96

Figure 16: Still from Audition……………………………………………………………………96

Figure 17: Still from Audition……………………………………………………………………97

Figure 18: Still from Audition……………………………………………………………………97

Figure 19: Still from Farewell My Concubine………………………………………………….173

Figure 20: Still from Farewell My Concubine……………………………………………….....176

Figure 21: Still from Farewell My Concubine……………………………………………….....177
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Figure 22: Still from Farewell My Concubine…………………………………………..……...178

Figure 23: Still from Suzhou River……………………………………………………………..188

Figure 24: Still from Suzhou River…………………………………………………………..…194

Figure 25: Still from Suzhou River……………………………………………………………..195

Figure 26: Still from Suzhou River……………………………………………………………..197

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INTRODUCTION

Diasporic Subjectivities: Reconsidering East Asia and its Diaspora in a Global Context

Recent scholarship in cross-cultural and literary studies has often equated nation-building
in the modern era with trauma. This trauma is posited not only as a clinical syndrome of people
who have experienced traumatic events but also as a cultural trope of nations suffering from
ruptures in their recent history. 1 In my dissertation, I focus on contemporary literary and

1 Since the 1990s, Trauma Studies has received sufficient critical attention from literary and
cultural scholars as to result in the establishment of a new disciplinary field. One of the field’s
main concerns is the ethical representation and transmission of traumatic events, which are
closely related to questions about how we can access the unreachable past and how we can make
truth claims about history through representations in fiction and historiography. While Kirby
Farrell, in Post-traumatic Culture, emphasizes the role of wish-fulfilling characters and
narratives that compensate for the traumatic scars of modern western culture, many relate the
representation of trauma to truth claims, in which trauma studies has been a forum for political
testimonial of the marginalized as well as the traumatized in history. For example, Shoshana
Feldman and Dori Laub in Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and
History (1992) examine the literature and visual texts of the Second World War and Holocaust as
witnesses to historical trauma, yet they suggest that narratives—confessional or fictional,
historical or fantastical—need to be understood as “a mode to access the truth,” [or: a mode of
access to the truth] an allegory for traumatic historical junctures (27). Nancy Peterson, in Against
Amnesia (2001), demands to read marginalized racial and ethnic writers’ narratives of “tragic
and traumatic moments of American history” as alternative histories of America. She claims that
erased events in official history are restructured and retold in fictional forms that convey
marginalized voices and heal scars from history. Gabriele Schwab, in Haunting Legacies:
Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma, also claims that focusing on traumatic history
is a way to release us from the present indulgence of violence on a daily basis. Schwab insists
that silenced histories, the unspeakable wounds of trauma, haunt the present, and that artwork
and the cryptographic writing of literature enables us to access unspeakable truths that will
release us from the present. Kate Douglas’ Contesting Childhood: Autobiography, Trauma, and
Memory (2010) discloses the ways in which the trope of traumatized or innocent childhood has
been used as affective memory practice to create “a consistent catalysis for the emergence of
marginalized voices” in contemporary western culture (172). Others, such as Dominick LaCapra,
Geoffrey Hartman, and Jill Bennet focus on the roles of artistic form and trauma in generating
empathic responses while representing the past.
1