Is a cure always desirable? In Curative Violence, Eunjung Kim problematizes blind faith in remedial transformation through an analysis of major filmic and literary expressions in modern Korea. Inasmuch as illness takes multiple forms, such as chronic, incurable, infectious, or acute, so do the means of being cured. The complicated process of curative transformation involves multiple agents and state regulations, together with the evolving desires and despair of the disabled individuals. Hence a complete transformation from an “abnormal” to a perfectly “normal” body exists more in fantasy than in reality. Through a careful examination of characters, plots, and images in cultural products, Kim shows how curative urgency has constituted assaultive benevolence and argues that the root of such violence lies in the familial obsession to achieve socio-culturally constructed normalcy by any means. More specifically, the state-led discourse equating disabled bodies with national weakness has accelerated the collective exhortation toward...

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