초록 열기/닫기 버튼


A simple gaze expresses surveillance and power. There are three kinds of gazes—the gazes of the camera, character and audience in film. This study considers the gaze of characters in North Korean films. In doing so, it considers a diverse gaze around three gazes of the characters—the gaze of a neighbor, a heroine and the postmaster in Troubles in My Home series. The neighbor is one of the sets of eyes watching the characters, and their gazes mean the phallic gaze which demands obedience and repression. The phallic gaze forces the heroine to be an obedient body by control and order, and their gaze is one-sided because the heroine—the subject of gaze—cannot look. Suppression combined with the phallic gaze of the neighbor symbolizes the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung in that it divides into ruler/subjects and male/female which in turn reveal a prison of visualization and a mechanism of surveillance. Therefore, their gaze is one eye in the apex, the cogito and the past gaze. The gaze of the heroine is dissociative and painful thanks to the misconception of the neighbor. The heroine is not the subject but the object and doesn’t reveal her desire obviously, so her gaze means consideration, love and desire. Omnipotence and authority in the gaze of the neighbor are suspected because of his imperfection about truth and his misconception. The heroine feels internal pain because of the gaze of misunderstanding, and though she is locked up in a prison of visuality that represses her freedom and is forced to obey one-sidedly, she resists the gaze of surveillance by several methods—onlooking, concealment and disguise. Her gaze is a symbol of North Korean women resisting the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung because it shows her resistance and pain by the dissociative gaze toward the neighborhood’s punishment for active women. Therefore, her gaze becomes passive eyes but reveals truth and a crack, making it the present gaze. The gaze of the postmaster has one thousand eyes and it is the disciplinary gaze of productivity and utility. His gaze acts as a surveillance mechanism that has no face and holds hegemony by suturing the conflicts between the neighbor and the heroine by his perfection of truth, and it is Panopticon which makes the heroine under observation by herself. As pyramidal and disciplinary gaze, his gaze raises productivity and utility by controling and watching her life and it makes woman become the productive body. His microscopic gaze controls not only the public fields but also the private fields. His gaze symbolizes the soft modernism of Kim Jung-Il because it emphasizes productivity and utility and shows internalization of surveillance and control by vision. In other words, his gaze becomes the eyes of the disembodied cogito and the future gaze to seek after recognition. As a result of this study about the three gazes of different characters in Troubles in My Home series, the gaze of the neighbor signifies the hard modernization of Kim Il-Sung using the phallic gaze, and the gaze of the heroine represents the resistance to the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung as the dissociative gaze. The gaze of the postmaster means the soft modernism as the disciplinary gaze. Therefore, the multiple gaze in Troubles in My Home series shows the changes of modernization and power, the desire and the crack of the masses in North Korea by the changes from the prison of visuality to the control of the body.


A simple gaze expresses surveillance and power. There are three kinds of gazes—the gazes of the camera, character and audience in film. This study considers the gaze of characters in North Korean films. In doing so, it considers a diverse gaze around three gazes of the characters—the gaze of a neighbor, a heroine and the postmaster in Troubles in My Home series. The neighbor is one of the sets of eyes watching the characters, and their gazes mean the phallic gaze which demands obedience and repression. The phallic gaze forces the heroine to be an obedient body by control and order, and their gaze is one-sided because the heroine—the subject of gaze—cannot look. Suppression combined with the phallic gaze of the neighbor symbolizes the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung in that it divides into ruler/subjects and male/female which in turn reveal a prison of visualization and a mechanism of surveillance. Therefore, their gaze is one eye in the apex, the cogito and the past gaze. The gaze of the heroine is dissociative and painful thanks to the misconception of the neighbor. The heroine is not the subject but the object and doesn’t reveal her desire obviously, so her gaze means consideration, love and desire. Omnipotence and authority in the gaze of the neighbor are suspected because of his imperfection about truth and his misconception. The heroine feels internal pain because of the gaze of misunderstanding, and though she is locked up in a prison of visuality that represses her freedom and is forced to obey one-sidedly, she resists the gaze of surveillance by several methods—onlooking, concealment and disguise. Her gaze is a symbol of North Korean women resisting the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung because it shows her resistance and pain by the dissociative gaze toward the neighborhood’s punishment for active women. Therefore, her gaze becomes passive eyes but reveals truth and a crack, making it the present gaze. The gaze of the postmaster has one thousand eyes and it is the disciplinary gaze of productivity and utility. His gaze acts as a surveillance mechanism that has no face and holds hegemony by suturing the conflicts between the neighbor and the heroine by his perfection of truth, and it is Panopticon which makes the heroine under observation by herself. As pyramidal and disciplinary gaze, his gaze raises productivity and utility by controling and watching her life and it makes woman become the productive body. His microscopic gaze controls not only the public fields but also the private fields. His gaze symbolizes the soft modernism of Kim Jung-Il because it emphasizes productivity and utility and shows internalization of surveillance and control by vision. In other words, his gaze becomes the eyes of the disembodied cogito and the future gaze to seek after recognition. As a result of this study about the three gazes of different characters in Troubles in My Home series, the gaze of the neighbor signifies the hard modernization of Kim Il-Sung using the phallic gaze, and the gaze of the heroine represents the resistance to the hard modernism of Kim Il-Sung as the dissociative gaze. The gaze of the postmaster means the soft modernism as the disciplinary gaze. Therefore, the multiple gaze in Troubles in My Home series shows the changes of modernization and power, the desire and the crack of the masses in North Korea by the changes from the prison of visuality to the control of the body.