The Handmaiden (dir. Park Chan-wook), which has been at the heart of discussions on both brilliantly done and poorly executed representations of queerness, has birthed not only a plethora of academic articles regarding the nature and marvel of its eroticism, but also scholarly debate surrounding the depiction of Korea’s “humiliating” past under Japan’s horrific rule in the early 20th century.
Embedded Files
SOME PROVISIONAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Though this film has already attracted much conversation, much because of how unusual it is, I thought it would nevertheless serve as a good project, as it is essentially the culmination of all that which I was hoping to research: gender, sexuality, and queerness in Korea; Japanese occupation/imperialism in Korea; Korean cinema; feminist and queer theory; and Western attribution of Korean modernization to Japan’s colonization of Korea.
Q
How does the queerness of pivotal characters create meaning about the Japanese occupation of Korea? What understanding of gender, sexuality, and colonization does shifting the original story’s setting to Korea generate? How does this adaptation create meaning about queer Korea? What gaps are being filled by this adaptation? What pieces are left out? What does the film say about what worldbuilding – as a salve – might look like in the aftermath of trauma? How one might “rebuild” themselves and the world around them (the people around them)? How does the relationship between Hideko and Sook-hee imagine a Korea shed of Japanese colonialism? What does their happy ending together – a rarity in queer media – signify?
STILL FROM THE ENDING OF THE HANDMAIDEN
insights
from
past
students
Choose something you’ll be passionate about and won’t get bored of
Go with your gut
Write in your voice – don’t focus entirely on speaking purely academically
Don’t feel restricted to generic organization – feel free to use headers
If stuck, reframe way of thinking to make piece flow more (in the Barbie piece, for example, the writer thought about it historically, as a timeline, and was able to include a range of concepts despite the length of the paper: neoliberalism, feminism, queer theory, consumerism, etc)
Don’t worry if your thoughts/direction shift throughout the process – this is natural
At the beginning many of their topics shifted around (were torn between different topics)
Both Professor Fan and Professor Ruberg’s research often ground understanding in the context of their own background and history, leading them to the creation of meaning. As I myself am doing my project on something that parallels multiple facets of my own identity, I predict this will be one of my guiding principles in the weeks to come. I’m particularly interested in how Professor Fan accomplishes this: he frequently interprets literature written by Asian American authors through the lens of Asian immigration to America. In one of his lectures, he made sure to emphasize that even if the authors aren’t technically writing about their experience about being Asian American, external factors – their identity – always bleed into their work. I hope to keep this in mind when analyzing The Handmaiden, as it is a sapphic film attempting to be told through the female gaze yet created by a man who exists in a patriarchal society. There are a few interpretations of the meta-ness of the film, how it might address the director’s own sexism, how it is evident he is conscious of his place and identity – but there will inevitably be things he “failed” to pay attention to – these “external factors.” His failure, in fact, might be another provisional question: what may have unintentionally bled into his work? And how are his misfirings reflective of our own world?
professors
ONE OF THE FINAL SCENES OF THE HANDMAIDEN
CHALLENGES
Like some of the past student writers, I often find myself swinging between different topics/arguments/understandings whenever in the process of writing something, something that I have, in the past, tried to suppress (I actually did a near-identical project during my senior spring: we had a quarter-long 10-25 page research paper, for which I bounced around like no other); this time around, I’ll be more embracing of the shifting nature of the direction of my project in the hopes that in the long run, I will reap a less conflicted paper. I’m guessing the advice of reframing one’s understanding of one’s research in order to maintain the flow will come in handy should I discover myself in such a position.
Overall, I hope to consistently stay engaged with my research and give myself ample time to write, reaching out if I ever feel I reach a standpoint. At this point, I think my biggest challenge is settling on a cohesive thesis and cutting out interpretations that I find interesting but are maybe not best suited for this paper. I assume that through diving deeper into the wealth of sources I have already uncovered, I will begin to better formulate an understanding of how I might organize my paper and, as a result, best pull and create meaning from the primary source I have chosen.
Sources
Sources
Fan, Christopher. “Racial Form: 'Asianness without “Asians'.” Humanities Core Lecture, University of California, Irvine. Lecture.
Seo-kyung, Chung,, et al. The Handmaiden Widescreen ed., Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2017.
Page updated
Report abuse