(De)territorializing Madness

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, the traditional South Korean folktale “Janghwa Hongryeon jeon” (The Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon) has been reiterated and reinterpreted in several textual narratives and filmic adaptations (Kim Kyu Hyun; Leung 173). The article examines two recent film reimaginings of this story—Kim Jee-woon’s 2002 South Korean A Tale of Two Sisters, and The Guard Brothers’ 2009 American remake, The Uninvited. Using poststructuralist and feminist disability theory, the argument is that Su-mi in Sisters and Anna in Uninvited are both subjected to the biopolitical apparatuses of control imposed by the societal norms of compulsory able-bodiedness (McRuer 8). Su-mi and Anna seek deterritorialization from the diagnosis of mental illness by engaging in creative acts of multiplicity, or what Gilles Deleuze describes as becoming-other (44). Anna uses her hybridity to engage in transgressive acts which paradoxically stabilize the social order of the nuclear family. Although Anna’s madness challenges the stability of normativity, her actions demonstrate that protecting the symbolic heteronormativity of the family trumps her emancipation. Conversely, Su-mi deterritorializes from subservience and resists the medicalization of her mind and body. Su-mi lacks the ethical response from those around her and thus fails to receive the care she requires. The lack of recognition or care from others ultimately leads to her re-institutionalization and the perpetuation of surveillance.