여공, 스크린 재현의 정치학

Abstract

Female Workers have been an important part of Korean society. Since the 1960s, a great number of young women have moved to large cities and became factory workers. With all physical hardship and low wages, they have chosen to be factory workers to support their families and to escape to cities. Sometimes they protested against abusive treatment by male supervisors and poor working conditions. With all their presence, it is extremely difficult to find female workers in commercial cinema. Korean film makers have hesitated to feature the life of female factory workers. Nevertheless, some film makers have attempted to bring female workers to life in the name of 'realism' and 'history'. This made possible the production of Guro Aryrang(1989) and A Single Spark(1995). This essay attempts to analyze the way these two exceptional films represent female workers. Even though film makers claim to support workers and labor movement, the way they depict female workers is somewhat problematic. They eventually downgrade women workers' intelligence and will, by relying on a certain kind of narrative pattern. By exploring the narrative pattern, this essay will highlight the political limitation of these so called labor films.