Imaging Rape: Film "The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin" (2019)

SaeHim Park (PhD Candidate, Duke University)
Respondent: Anna Storti

Abstract:
This paper examines The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin (2019), a fantasy-documentary film featuring Park In-sun (b.1943), a survivor of the United States military prostitution in South Korea (1950s-present). Images of Park's nightmares appear on screen: beheaded soldier, ghosts, corpses on palanquin, and death messengers. I argue that these tropes challenge the fallacy of choice between rape and death. Sharon Marcus (1992) states, "rape is death, but...in a rape the only way to avoid death is to accept it." Director Kim Dong-ryung (b.1977) and survivor Park In-sun as artists forge a new language against the death of rape.
Please RSVP lorenza.starace@duke.edu by March 15th for advance reading material.