This pioneering volume navigates cultural memory of the Korean War through the lens of contemporary arts and film in South Korea for the last two decades. Cultural memory of the Korean War has been a subject of persistent controversy in the forging of South Korean postwar national and ideological identity. Applying the theoretical notion of "postmemory," this book examines the increasingly diversified attitudes toward memories of the Korean War and Cold War from the late 1990s and onward, particularly in the demise of military dictatorships. Chapters consider efforts from younger generation artists and filmmakers to develop new ways of representing traumatic memories by refusing to confine themselves to the tragic experiences of survivors and victims. Extensively illustrated, this is one of the first volumes in English to provide an in-depth analysis of work oriented around such themes from 12 renowned and provocative South Korean artists and filmmakers. This includes documentary photographs, participatory public arts, independent women's documentary films, and media installations. The Korean War and Postmemory Generation will appeal to students and scholars of film studies, contemporary art, and Korean history.

This pioneering volume navigates cultural memory of the Korean War through the lens of contemporary arts and film in South Korea for the last two decades. Cultural memory of the Korean War has been a subject of persistent controversy in the forging of South Korean postwar national and ideological identity. Applying the theoretical notion of "postmemory," this book examines the increasingly diversified attitudes toward memories of the Korean War and Cold War from the late 1990s and onward, particularly in the demise of military dictatorships. Chapters consider efforts from younger generation artists and filmmakers to develop new ways of representing traumatic memories by refusing to confine themselves to the tragic experiences of survivors and victims. Extensively illustrated, this is one of the first volumes in English to provide an in-depth analysis of work oriented around such themes from 12 renowned and provocative South Korean artists and filmmakers. This includes documentary photographs, participatory public arts, independent women's documentary films, and media installations. The Korean War and Postmemory Generation will appeal to students and scholars of film studies, contemporary art, and Korean history.

What are the relationships between the male body and male sexualities? How can one's identity be affirmatively categorized in accordance with certain gender distinctions and sexual orientations? By drawing upon the close analysis of Larry Rivers' nude portraits, his autobiography along with the writings of Frank O'Hara, who was a poet and close affiliate of the artist, this book explores the issues of the self, body, and sexual identities, particularly male sexualities in art, literature, and cultures of the 1950s. Most of the extant discussions of Rivers' art locate the painter in a transitional position between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. This book presents an alternative proposition by concentrating on Rivers' involvement with young homosexual poets in the New York School, including O'Hara during the 1950s and early 1960s. The particular emphasis is placed upon how Rivers' and O'Hara's depictions of the male nude and male intimacy in the 1950s prefigured the revolutionary concept of identity and "normal" male sexualities far before the advent of queer studies in the 1990s.