Politics of representation in the era of globalization: discourse about marriage migrant women in two South Korean films

Abstract

The complexity of globalization challenges our understanding of culture and identity as these are reshaped by dominant/marginal identity relations that become increasingly fluid across transnational space. Ex/neo-colonial South Korea, growing in economic power and transnational cultural influence mostly in Asia, has become a host to Asian immigrants. Accompanying the changing ethnoscape, media discourse constitutes (more than reflects) immigrant identities and their experiences. Study of discourse in two South Korean films about marriage migrant women reveals constructions that serve new nation-building policies in the global era while maintaining traditional assumptions about, and realities of, gender, race/ethnic, and class relations.