The Nation of Hostility and Hospitality suggested by Melodrama: Focusing on Descendants of the Sun and Mr. Sunshine

The purpose of this study is to explore how melodrama proposes the nation of hostility against capitalism and the politics of hospitality. respectively. Descendants of the Sun is written as a social imagination by comparing the disasters of the fictional nation of Uruk to the contemporary Korean situation. To this end, the drama introduces a male hero in military uniform and symbolizes the meaning and nature of the war he carries out by disarming individuals caught in the world perceived as experience and finally surrendering to a world beyond experience. By depicting it, the drama suggests that tomorrow's nation that fights against the violence of capitalism will be possible through the solidarity of such subjects who decide to move between the two different worlds. Such suggestions are expanded into a nation of hospitality in Mr. Sunshine, which is set in the Korean Empire shaken by imperial interference and scheming. The female hero as the righteous individual one who devoted herself to Joseon's independence, falls apart when the male protagonist, the son of a slave who was expelled from Joseon asks whether the tomorrow's nation will treat everyone equal. In this drama, the meaning of the female subjects heading towards independent Joseon is revealed not in the subject's capabilities but in the process in which the subject doubts her own ability and righteousness. Through this, Mr. Sunshine suggests that tomorrow's nation should be the one that includes and protects every existence.