The Senses As Strategy in the South Korean Family Bonnie R. Tilland A
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Hateful and Heartwarming Bonds: The Senses as Strategy in the South Korean Family Bonnie R. Tilland A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: Ann Anagnost, Chair Clark Sorensen Sasha Welland Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Anthropology © Copyright 2015 Bonnie R. Tilland University of Washington Abstract Hateful and Heartwarming Bonds: The Senses as Strategy in the South Korean Family Bonnie R. Tilland Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Ann Anagnost Department of Anthropology This dissertation investigates women’s strategizing around the senses in South Korea, tracing the ways that women move between sensory experience as an ideal and as an object to put into motion. I argue that the language of the sensory is invoked to stand up to state or societal pressures regarding family-making, child-rearing, and maternal subjectivity. The senses, affect, and emotions are employed to carve out space for individual and family well-being within neoliberal logics of productivity, but these new areas of sensory possibility are too often colonized by the same neoliberal logics. Utilizing multi-sited ethnography, media analysis, and an interdisciplinary feminist perspective, I followed the language of sensory development and sensory experience in practice through participant-observation at community spaces, and through ethnographic interviews. The main issues of this dissertation include: first, the ways that the extended family in South Korea is structured through visual culture and watching/being seen, resulting in ambivalence, particularly in the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship. Second, how touch and other senses are conceived of as avenues for emotional and psychological fortification for young children, and how this cultivation of sensory education is extended not just to the mother-child bond, but also to national healing. Third, how sensory fields of sound (in the form of “K-pop” music) and taste (as part of global Korean cuisine) have become spaces of opportunity but also anxiety for teenagers, youth, and their parents. Finally, how “odor” operates metaphorically in constructing the South Korean nation and regions in general, and regionalism and “regional sentiment” in the Chŏlla (southwest) in particular, with implications for restricted access to resources on the one hand but greater yŏyu (space, leisure) for cultivating the senses on the other. While recognizing that the senses are easily appropriated by the state to promote efficient care of the self according to neoliberal logics, this dissertation investigates small spaces in which the various senses might open up possibilities for more egalitarian, communitarian living in contemporary South Korea. “Hateful and Heartwarming Bonds” Bonnie R. Tilland Table of Contents Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... ii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Family Looks Beautiful: The Affective Weight of Mothers-in-law in Family Talk in South Korea .................................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 2: Pushing Back Against South Korean National Birthrate Crisis Discourse through “Sensory Experience” ................................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 3: Academic Sneaks, Pop Idols and Fans: School-Age South Koreans and Hakpumo (School Parents) “Sounding Off” ................................................................................................ 128 Chapter 4: Baker Kings, Rice Liquor Princesses, and the Coffee Elite: Food Nationalism and Youth Creativity in the Construction of Korean “Taste” ............................................................ 175 Chapter 5: Something Stinks: South Korea’s Southwest and “Regional Sentiment” ................. 231 Epilogue ...................................................................................................................................... 277 List of References ....................................................................................................................... 283 Curriculum Vitae ........................................................................................................................ 300 ii “Hateful and Heartwarming Bonds” Bonnie R. Tilland Acknowledgements ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A dissertation is a collaborative effort, although in the last few months (or years!) of lonely writing it is easy to forget this. It is such a pleasure now to take a break from editing the dissertation and reflect on all the people who helped me become the scholar and person I am, who offered words of encouragement when I most needed them, and who showed interest in my work even when I had lost that enthusiasm myself. I consider myself especially fortunate to have been surrounded by remarkable scholars and people who challenged and pushed me, but who also humanely reminded me that a dissertation is just a beginning and not a magnum opus, and who advocated self-care even while pushing me to go farther with my ideas and writing. I have had the good fortune to work with Ann Anagnost for many years now, benefiting from her gentle yet sharp criticism as my advisor and dissertation chair. She is an amazing editor of my work and supportive mentor, and has given generously of her time even in the busiest moments of her career, writing countless recommendation letters for fellowships and jobs on short notice. I have been deeply appreciative of the writing groups Ann formed every few quarters for several years in a row, as a way to encourage her students to keep on making progress. I also learned much about teaching by watching Ann in the classroom, and in my best moments hope that I can be as motivating a teacher as she has been for so many students. My dissertation reading committee has worked harmoniously behind the scenes of my messy dissertation drafts, and in my student-like self-centeredness I did not realize until recently how uncommonly smoothly their complementary roles have played out as my committee. Clark Sorensen, who was also my MA advisor in the Jackson School of International Studies, has commented on many drafts of my work, and has been a model of the kind of Korean Studies scholar I am trying to be: widely-read, open-minded, historically-informed, and critical yet generous. Clark’s ability to identify and target funding sources also cannot be overestimated. Sasha Welland served not only as a committee member but also oversaw my work for the Feminist Studies certificate, and her insightful comments on my writing have gotten me back on track and motivated to move forward countless times. She has been a true role model of feminist praxis and engaged scholarship and teaching for me. There are committee members and other faculty at the University of Washington I worked more closely with early in my graduate school career, but who have been no less important in my intellectual development. In fact, because I took intensive classes and had meetings with them during such formative years, their words and advice pop into my head more often than they probably imagine. Celia Lowe gave me thoughtful encouragement during coursework, and her feedback on exam essays and advice regarding structuring the general exam were invaluable. My dissertation committee GSR (Graduate School Representative), Yomi Braester, taught a Chinese Film class that had a great impact on the way I research and teach media. I am also indebted to Miriam Kahn for ongoing support with the dissertation proposal (well past the grant-writing class!), to Rachel Chapman for completely opening up alter/native possibilities of anthropology to me, and to Andrea Arai for her amazing energy and the flood of new ideas that she has always offered in response to my writing. I also wish to thank Heekyoung Cho for faculty mentorship while I was teaching courses in the department of Asian Languages ii “Hateful and Heartwarming Bonds” Bonnie R. Tilland Acknowledgements and Literature. Hyokyoung Yi, the UW’s Korean Studies librarian, provided indispensable support. Last, but absolutely not least, I would have been adrift much more often than I already was without advice at every turn from Catherine Ziegler, the (much more than) Graduate Program Adviser for Anthropology. My MA in Korean Studies pales in comparison to the PhD in terms of time—two brief years—but it was also a period of significant growth. I consider myself forever blessed to have taken courses from one of the giants of Korean Studies, the late historian James Palais; and from one who would have undoubtedly have become one of Korean Studies’ giants, the late literary scholar Scott Swaner. I also recognize the tireless work of my Korean language teacher in those early years, Soohee Kim. I would never have chosen to pursue the PhD and enter academia without all the brilliant mentors from early life. I am forever thankful to my committed teachers at Lawrence University: especially Jane P. Yang, Franklin Doeringer, and Kuo-ming Sung. Prior to university, I grew up in the dream-like intellectual atmosphere and caring community of The Northwest School. My fieldwork was funded