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THE REPRESENTATION OF NATURE AND SCIENCE IN NORTH KOREAN CINEMA

Benjamin Joinau

CRC, EHESS (Paris)/

Hongik University (Seoul)

INTRODUCTION Science from within

• RELATION MARXISM AND JUCHEISM

• JUCHEISM AS A FRAME OF ANALYSIS FOR NORTH KOREAN CINEMA?

• ROLE OF NATURE AND SCIENCE IN THAT CINEMA

• WHAT IS NORTH KOREAN CINEMA MADE FOR?

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NATURE AND SCIENCE IN MARXISMPart 1Is it relevant to refer to Marxism

when analyzing North Korean

narratives?

NATURE IS AN OPPOSITIONAL FORCE AND A SUBSTRATUM TO DOMINATE THROUGH WORK AND EFFORT

MARXISM IS A NON-ONTOLOGICAL MATERIALISM

o Matter is not an ontological principle.

o Nature = all beings

“Since men constitute a component of the reality, the concept of 'nature' is identical with the 'whole of reality' in the Marxist view.”

A. Schmidt, The Concept of nature in Marx, 2014: 29.

o Nature is a « burden » for man.

“(…) the struggle for existence takes place in a world too poor for the satisfaction of human needs without constant restraint, renunciation, delay. In other words, whatever satisfaction is possible necessitates work, more or less painful arrangements and undertakings for the procurement of the means for satisfying needs.” H. Marcuse, Eros and Civilization.

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LABOUR-PROCESS AS MARX’S « PRINCIPLE OF REALITY »

Essential incompatibility of man and nature (= Subject and Object)

= necessity of labour as a mediation between them

Philosophy of non-identity of Subject and Object

Human practice at the core of man-nature relation

MARXISM IS A HUMANISM

o “(…) for socialist man the whole of what is called world history is nothing but the creation of man by human labour, and the emergence of nature for man, he therefore has the evident and irrefutable proof of his self-creation, of his own process of origination.’ (Marx, Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts, p. 166)

o Man’s essence is still to come: the New Subject

o « Complete man » is the supreme being as he is self-created

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NATURE AS AN OBJECT OF MEDIATION FOR THE COMPLETENESS OF MAN

o « Nature is the Subject-Object of labour. Its dialectic consists in this: that men change their own nature as they progressively deprive external nature of its strangeness and externality, as they mediate nature through themselves, and as they make nature itself work for their own purposes. (…) this relationship between man and nature is the precondition for the relationship between man and man (…)” A. Schmidt, ibid.: 61.

o In this dialectical process, man is changed.

o Through appropriation of and mastering of nature, man canachieve his completeness.

NATURE’S NATURE PERFECTED BY MAN THROUGH SCIENCE

o Human activity « helps to give expression to what nature is in itself.” (Walter Benjamin)

o Nature in Marxism is a potential perfected by man.

o Science and technique achieve this perfection and mastering.

o Marx thought he had realized the development of socialism from utopia to science: Marxism is not a utopian philosophy.

o Typical “Promethean trend” of 19th c. Western imaginary (Durand, 1996). Science as a trope in the new liberation myth.

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NATURE’S NATURE PERFECTED BY MAN THROUGH SCIENCE

o “(…) In properly organized labour (…) nature presents to men a (…) 'more natural' side than in the laboratory. In the latter, nature is determined by the questions man poses to it. (…) But in the shape of the material of labour, nature also confronts men as something qualitatively determined, as their own body which they must appropriate.” A. Schmidt, ibid.: 161.

Importance of the efforts on oneself through organized labour to struggle against the natural part of the self

Importance of practical and applied science, i.e. technology

ccl: nature is an oppositional force and a substratum to dominate through work and effort

THE JUCHE THOUGHTPart 2

Is it relevant to refer to jucheism

when analyzing North Korean

cinema?

BECAUSE OF THE THREE ATTRIBUTES (CONSCIOUSNESS, CREATIVITY AND AUTONOMY) DEFINED BY THE JUCHE

THOUGHT,

MAN IS SEEN AS THE UNIQUE DOMINATOR (CHIBAEJA) AND REFORMER (KAEJOJA) OF NATURE.

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JUCHE AS A NARRATIVE - IDEOLOGEMS

The purpose is not to decipher whether the Juche theory has any philosophical coherence

On nature and science at least, Juche thought is coherent as a text, and I intend to deal with it here on a narrative level.

The hypothesis here is that this narrative and its “ideologems” are informing North Korean cultural productions.

We don’t have here to consider whether or not it is an implemented and “working” ideology in social and political practices. It translates in the cinema production as praxis.

Ideologem, a notion used by Gilbert Durand, is the equivalent of the trope, the smallest ideological unity in an ideological narrative, seen as a structuring element of the discourse (and not as a concept per se). It refers to the mythologem, a notion developed by Levi-Strauss for the structural analysis of myths.

JUCHEISM

Chuch’esŏng

New Subjectivity

ŭishiksŏng

ch’angjo-sŏng

chajusŏng

Consciousness =

political (nationalist)

awareness

Creativity

= appropriating

(subjectivating)

force

Autonomy

= sovereigntySocio-political vital

force able

to fight nature

and all forms

of alienation

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JUCHEISM IS A ÜBER-HUMANISM

Kim Jong-il, On the Juche Idea, 1982: 10-13.

There is nothing more precious than man’s interests, and that “all the beings of the world only get their value by the service they can give to man” (op. cit.: 13).

Because of these three attributes (consciousness, creativity and autonomy) defined by the Juche thought, man is seen as the unique dominator (chibaeja) and reformer (kaejoja) of nature.

“master of the world”

(segye-ŭichuin)

nature at his “service” (pokmu)

man “dominates”

(chibae)

man is at the “centre of the

world” (chungshim)

man is the most powerful being (kajang

himi innŭnchonjae)

SCIENCE TO PROMOTE JUCHEISM

o Sciences are of course here to help the technological mastering of nature, but foremost, they are asked to help develop the Juche thought (see Kim Jong-il, On the Juche Idea, 1982: 72 and sq.)

o Importance of pratical science and knowledge.

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COMPARING IDEOLOGEMS IN MARXISM AND JUCHEISM

Ideologems Marxism Jucheism

Nature = all beings O O

Incompatibilty man=nature O O

Human practice at the core (labour) O O

Man perfects nature’s « potential » O O

Effort on oneself through nature O O

Man’s nature completed through

mastering of nature

O O

Humanism O O radicalized

Science and technique tools for

achieving the mastering

O O

Science must also promote Juche

Consciousness O O

Creativity = subjectivation O O

Autonomy Self-creation, individual freedom Quasi ontological materialism???

Subjectivity Through dialectical materialism Juchean subjectivity???

Dialectics Non-identity Non-identity man-nature, but…?

ANALYSE OF THE CORPUSPart 3

Selecting the movies

Diegetic structure

THESE MOVIES REVEAL A POSITIVE TROPE OF IDENTIFICATION UNDERSTOOD AS THE REALIZATION OF THE IDENTITY OF

THE LEADER WITH THE PERFECT CITIZENS.

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19 MOVIES – 1972-2010 – « SOCIALIST REALITY » GENRE

보통강반에깃든이야기 A Story on the Potong River 1972

숲은설레이다 A Forest is Swaying 1982

우리는묘향산에서다시만났다 We Met at Mt Myohyang 1983

운행길에서만난처녀 The Girl We Met on our Trip 1983

금강산으로가자 Let’s go to Mt Kumgang 1986

한건축가에대한이야기 The Story of an Architect 1987

생의훈적 Traces of Life 1989

대동강에서만난사람들 They Met on the Taedong River 1993

도시처녀시집가요 Urban Girl Comes to Get Married 1993

우리가여기서산다 Here We Live 1999

우리료리사 Our Cook 2000

흰연기 White Smoke 2000

시대의임무 Duty of a Generation 2002

우리향기 Our Fragrance 2003

내고향의바다 The Sea of my Hometown 2005

충복 A Dutiful Servant 2005

한녀학생의일기 A Schoolgirl Diary 2006

시대가주는이름 The Name Given by the Era 2009

행복의수레바퀴 The Wheel of Happiness 2010

DIEGETIC STRUCTURE

Misconception

Main agent opposer

First revelation -analepsis

Second revelation : direct experienceof main agent’sreal personality

Evocation in absentia of the

Leader« Enlightenment » Happy end

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DOUBLE REVELATION AND CHIASM

This structure works as a revelation process, on two levels:

o the opposer corrects his/her mind and attitude

o the main character is recognized as the virtuous and positivecharacter, when he/she was in many cases scolded or misjudged byother characters

This double revelation permits an inversion (the hidden hero isrevealed to the public, the wrongful character is reformed into amodel citizen): the working structure of this genre is the chiasm.

DIALECTICS OF IDENTITY: IMITATIO KIMI

A positive dialectic where mistake is just a moment of a higher truth resulting in a (re)union.

From a divisive situation, the plot has made the characters evolve towards a final unity - “We are All One Family”, as says the title of one of the movies.

This pattern displays actually a dialectics of identity.

The solitary hero(ine) is a metonymic mirror of the Leader, a similarly perfect being working endlessly in a self-sacrifice spirit for the happiness of the people.

What the characters are realizing through the plot of the movie, is their identification with the Leader through hard work, sacrifice and solitude.

These movies reveal a positive trope of identification understood as the realization of the identity of the Leader with the perfect citizens.

“(…) many Juche theoreticians have been deeply involved in studying the possible linkage between Juche and Christiantheology. (…) The eternal life proclaimed here is attained when a biological (isolated) individual acquires a political-social life by overcoming innate human desires and an egoistic lifestyle and integrating himself thouroughly into the lifesystem of the national community, thus becoming part of the immortal political-social body.” Park Han S., The Politics ofUnconventional Wisdom, 2002: 36-37.

From Imitatio Christi to Imitatio Kimi

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REPRESENTATION OF NATUREPart 4

4 determinations of nature in

movies

• NATURE AS A MATERIAL TO APPLY LABOUR ON

• A FORCE OF ALIENATION TO DOMINATE

• A NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE TO PRESERVE

• A METAMORPHIC MILIEU

• DIEGETIC ROLE OF NATURE IN CINEMA

NATURE AS A MATERIAL TO APPLY LABOUR ON

o Nature as purveyor of raw materials: action of man is more important

o Afforestation – illustration of second 7 year plan (1978-1984) and Land Law (1977) policies

oLocality trope (local vs. central): adaptation to local situations

Simple casuistry, and not ecology-friendly attitude

A Forest is

Swaying, 1982

Let’s go to Mt

Kumgang, 1986

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A FORCE OF ALIENATION TO DOMINATE

The Name given by

the Era, 2009

Namgang Village

Women, 1964

o « Remaking of nature »: violent order

of capitalism and colonial era// wild

nature

o A Story on the Potong River (1972)

o Nature is good when transformed into

a humanized and human-oriented

milieu

o The Name given by the Era (2009)

o Importance of the implication of the

body in the struggle against nature as

a sign of the struggle against the

natural drives in oneself (selfishness)

o Importance effort and sacrifice:

sufferings through labour on nature

are necessary for the protagonists

and… for the narrative

o Dialectics of subjectivation: Self =

Society/Nation

A NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE TO PRESERVE

A Forest is

Swaying, 1982

We Met at Mt

Myohyang, 1983

o What socialist management of nature callsfor, is a rationalized exploitation, not anunruly spoliation.

o The Sea of my Hometown (2005): need forsustainable exploitation.

o Pristine nature rarely praised for itself,except for the mountainous areas.

o We Met at Mount Myohyang (1983):

o from a discourse about the importance of protectingthe natural and cultural heritage of the park, to adescription of an even more precious heritage: themountain sanctity is amplified by the action and spiritof the Leader.

o Eventually, the Leader, as a god-like perfect beingand a living sun, is always above nature.

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A METAMORPHIC MILIEU

Traces of life, 1989

My Mother was a

Hunter, 1994

My Mother was a Hunter, 1994

Diana-like transformation exchanges the weak feminity

of the character with the wild and obscure forces of the

nature. But she doesn’t become herself a beast: like

Diana in the Greco-roman mythology, and mostly like all

the images of “the Great Goddess ”, she is a “tamer” of

the wild beasts (=forces) of nature, a mediator between

civilisation and wilderness. The environment of this

metamorphosis is the deep forest of northern

mountainous areas, but the very engine is the call of the

General, whose invisible presence is the real acting

force of the place.

THE SPIRIT OF THE PLACE

• Invisibility of the Leader: always evoked in absentia.

• The visit of the place by the Leader seems to linger on, through

the oral relations and photographs of the moment, almost like a

mystical energy.

• Leader gives perfection to the world (= nature) (cf Marx)

• Isomorphism: Leader = Mountains and Sun = Positive forces of

nature = True (juchean, social-political) nature of man

• Overcoming non-identity dialectics?

• A surrogate philosophy of identity where there are two

different natures to consider:

• the natural nature (raw materials, forces of the elements,

passive beings of the world) which has to be tamed and

rationalized in order to serve man,

• the positive transcending force of generation and growth

which is a cryptic expression of the Great Leader

(chajusŏng?)

Cinematographic grammar of the enlightenment

scenes:

• Symphonic music – violins

• Close-up of the face of the transformed

character – tears

• Large shots of the surrounding landscape:

mountain range, peaks, sunset

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DIEGETIC ROLE OF NATURE IN CINEMA

So structurally speaking, nature in ourmovies can have two main functions:

A dialectic function (mediation as objectof the main characters’ labour-processand struggle)

An allegoric function (symbolizes thenation – like in national parks – or theLeader’s hovering energy).

So to speak, nature has always animportant structural role in the narrativeof our movies, but it is a secondary role,reflecting the Juchean conception ofnature and the central role of man.

REPRESENTATION OF SCIENCEPart 5

3 aspects of science in North

Korean cinema

• SCIENTISTS MORE THAN SCIENCE

• PRACTICAL (ON-THE-SPOT) RESEARCHERS AND TECHNICIANS MORE THAN LABORATORY INTELLECTUALS

• A GENDERED SCIENCE

• SCIENCE AS A NARRATIVE TRIGGER IN NORTH KOREAN CINEMA

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SCIENTISTS MORE THAN SCIENCE

o Discoveries happen in secret. Invisibility of theprocess of science, metonymically representedby the actors of science: the scientists.

o More than veracity, these movies work onverisimilitude, and science is here, in the movies,as an enhancer of realism. More than theprocess of science, it is the intradiegetic functionof science and the attitude of the scientist whichare important.

oThe Leader is the perfect model of Self whorealized, through his hard work and perpetualsacrifice, his equation to the nation.

o Enlightenment trope (16 cases on 19 movies)= more than science, it is the model inspiringthe scientist which is important.

PRACTICAL RESEARCHERS AND TECHNICIANS MORE THAN LABORATORY

INTELLECTUALS

Let’s go to Mt

Kumgang, 1986

The Wheel of Happiness, 2010

o « lived utopia » theory =

practical actions are valued

over idealism and theoretical

concerns

o Science is just a tool used

towards a defined result.

o Emphasis on applied science,

and technology, technicians

and engineers.

o 2 kinds of researchers.

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A GENDERED SCIENCE

The Wheel of Happiness, 2010

A Urban Girl Comes to

Get Married, 1993

o Positive main characters: 2x more males

o Scientists: 1/3 more males

Science and narratives are gendered

o Gender opposition echoed by the

wrongful/righteous opposition + mating

trope

o BUT:

o Opposers: mostly men (20 against 8

females)

Men have a tendency to be generally the

“heroes” of this category of movies. They

have 50% more chances to be the

leading and rightful scientist of the film.

Women have a tendency to be less

« wrong » than men.

They have to be « super women »: perfect

housewives and model workers.

Situation though improving in many

movies.

SCIENCE AS A NARRATIVE TRIGGER

Dialectic structure of comedy: transformational characters, systematic happy ends.

Science as an intradiegetic tool mediating nature and the agents of the narrative: very important intradiegetic role triggering the resolution of the “problem”.

Importance of the prescribing role of the Juche ideas and of the Leader in the practice of science

they appear as essential structuring elements in North Korean cinema.

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CONCLUSION

Specific visual order in North Korean politics and culture.

Complex regimes of visibility.

Movies proved to express the invisibility of the sovereign Leader

through a dialectic narrativity.

They illustrate through images the double equation of the Juchean

Self:

Hero = Leader = Nation

Leader = Sun and Mountains (positive transcending forces of

nature) = Chajusŏng as a socio-political force

In that perspective, nature becomes a transcending, idealistic

principle and the non-identity man-nature problem is solved in the

triangulation: through the mediation of the Leader, individuals

become the Nation and live forever in it.

This is the Subjectivity described in Jucheism: Perfect Subject =

(Self = Nation)

This is where Juche ideology is innovative compared to Marxism.

Man

vs.

Nature

Leader’steaching

Labour

JucheanSubject: Self = Nation

mediated

through

Juchesŏng

dialectics