2019 年 95 巻 p. 203-219
This paper focuses on the Korean “daily toon,” a specific genre of webtoon
(a portmanteau of the words “web” and “cartoon”). In these toons, a character
appears as an avatar presenting the writer’s perspective. Present research considers
the melancholic representation of youth in the early years of daily toons.
Daily toons featuring authors’ experiences were often drawn quite frankly, as
one would write or sketch in a diary. Youths developed an affinity for these
toons, as their production and consumption reflected facets of young people’s
everyday life. Focusing on these points, this research aims to examine: ⑴ relationships
between the three aspects of the melancholic motif appearing in early
daily toons; ⑵ the structure of feeling of the younger generation and ⑶ personal
homepages as private spaces online( where episodes were published serially).
In the early 2000s, young people shared ambivalent emotions arising from
social changes following the 1997 financial crisis. They were tasked with maintaining
the role of standard-bearers for social change, while also experiencing
feelings of self-pity and loss. In the early daily toons, depressive feelings are
represented by three themes, namely: ⑴ thinking and self-reflection; ⑵ loss and
loneliness and ⑶ emptiness and lethargy. Such melancholic motifs can be interpreted
as symbolizing youths’ depression and sense of loss, utilizing the properties
of personal homepages as private spaces for self-expression. In real life,
young people’s collective actions toward social change occur in spaces such as
public squares, where their behavior and practices represent emotions such as
anger and resistance. In contrast, the motifs in the early daily toons can be
interpreted as representing more personal emotional processes (such as fear
and pity) among youth.