Popular Culture in Contemporary Korea
(2 credits, 2014-2015)
Instructor: Dr. Jooyeon Rhee
Office: Faculty of
Humanities. #5618
Class Hours: (Tu) 10:30-12:00
Office Hours: (Tu)
12:30-14:00 or by appointment
Level: Undergraduate
Final: Written exam
Email:
jooyeon.rhee@mail.huji.ac.il
Phone no.: 02-5880132
2 Credits
Prerequisite: None
Course Overview
This introductory course on Korean popular culture aims to provide a comprehensive
view of contemporary Korean society, politics, and economy through examining some of
the most representative forms of popular culture. It investigates the ways in which
contemporary Korean popular media such as film, TV-drama, social media, and popular
music convey everyday Korean life; and explains how these forms of culture are corelated to a rapidly changing global environment.
This course also provides theoretical concepts and ideas that enable students to
understand Korean popular culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. Some of the
crucial issues students will deal with include the trans-cultural significance of the Korean
wave (hallyu), race and ethnic relations, gender and sexuality, and nationalism.
Course Objectives
To provide an opportunity for students to
- Gain solid knowledge about contemporary Korean society, politics, and culture
- Study the relationship between forms of Korean popular culture in a global context
- Develop analytical ability through reading both empirical and theoretical literature
ASSIGNMENTS AND TESTS
1. 10 in-class quizzes
You will be tested with very simple questions (2 to 4) from the given reading materials
every week before each class begins. If you miss the class, you WILL ALSO LOSE the
opportunity to take the quiz of the week. Please inform me if you have exceptional
circumstances that prevent you from coming to class, thus from taking the quiz.
Value: 10%
(1% per quiz)
2. Final exam: To be written on a date set by the university. You will be tested on what
you’ve learned during the course. Please be familiar with the historical timeline,
political/economic/social events, titles of films, names of film directors, and key
theoretical terms.
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* Please be informed that questions are selected from all the materials covered in classes
(both readings and lectures). Make sure that you read lecture notes and make additional
notes during each class if necessary.
Format of the exam
- 10 multiple choices questions (20%)
- 10 short answer questions (4-5 sentences, 50%)
- 3 long answer questions (9-10 sentences, two paragraphs, 30%)
Value: 80%
3. Attendance/participation: It is crucial that you attend every class and participate in
class discussion as much as possible to share your thoughts with classmates. If you are to
miss a class (or classes), please inform me in advance and explain the reason for your
absence(s) so that I can accommodate your needs.
Value: 10%
SPECIAL NOTES
* You WILL LOSE the opportunity to sit in the final exam if you miss classes more than
THREE TIMES without notifying me and providing me with proper documentation.
Marking Scheme
Quizzes
1 Final Exam
Attendance/Participation
Total
10%
80%
10%
100%
TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE
Wk 1 Introduction: Why Study Korean Popular Culture?
Oct. 28
Readings
2 short newspaper articles about North Koreans consuming South Korean
popular cultural products
YouTube
tallae umakdan, moranbong band, etc.
Wk 2 Culture, the State, and Nationalism in Contemporary Korea
Nov. 4
Readings
Younghan Cho, “The National Crisis and De/reconstructing Nationalism
in South Korea during the IMF Intervention,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
9, no. 1 (2008): 82–96.
Wk 3 The Cultural Landscape of Korea since the Late 1990s
Nov. 11
Readings
Hye Seung Chung, “Medium Hot, Korean Cool: Hallyu Envy and Reverse
Mimicry in Contemporary U.S. Pop Culture,” in Hallyu: Influence of
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Korean Popular Culture in Asia and Beyond, edited by Do Kyun Kim and
Min-Sun Kim (Seoul: Seoul National University Press, 2011), 63–90.
Wk 4 The Background of the K-Pop Business
Nov. 18
Readings
Ingyu Oh and Hyo-Jung Lee, “K-pop in Korea: How the Pop Music
Industry is Changing a Post-Developmental Society,” Cross-Currents 9
(2009): 105–121.
* Please download the file from: https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/ejournal/issue-9/oh-and-lee
John Lie, “Why Didn’t ‘Gangnam Style’ Go Viral in Japan?: Gender
Divide and Subcultural Heterogeneity in Contemporary Japan,” CrossCurrents 9 (2013): 45–62.
* Please download the file from: https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/ejournal/issue-9/lie
Wk 5 “Riding the Wave”: Korean TV Drama in Asia and Beyond
Nov. 25
Readings
Nissim Otmazgin and Ira Lyan, “Hallyu Across the Desert,” CrossCurrents 9 (December 2013): 68–85.
* Download the file from https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/ejournal/issue-9
(optional) Doobo Shim, “The Growth of Korean Cultural Industries and
the Korean Wave,” in East Asian Pop Culture, edited by Chua Beng Huat
and Koichi Iwabuchi (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008),
15–32.
Wk 6 The Music Industry after the Late 1990s
Dec. 2
Readings
Hyunjoon Shin, “Have you Ever Seen the Rain? And Who’ll Stop the
Rain?: The Globalizing Project of Korean Pop,” Inter-Asia Cultural
Studies 10, no. 4 (2009): 507–23.
Wk 7 The Hallyu and Gender in Japan
Dec. 9
Readings
Yukie Hirata, “Touring ‘Dramatic Korea’: Japanese Women as Viewers of
Hanryu Dramas and Tourists on Hanryu Tours,” in East Asian Pop
Culture 143–156.
Yoshitaka Mori, “Winter Sonata and Cultural Practices of Active Fans in
Japan: Considering Middle-age Women as Active Agents,” in East Asian
Pop Culture, 127–142.
Wk 8 Manufacturing/Consuming Masculinity/Femininity
Dec. 16
Readings
Sun Jung, “K-Pop Idol Boy Bands and Manufactured Versatile
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Masculinity: Making Chogukjeok Boys,” in Korean Masculinities and
Transnational Consumption, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
2011, 163–170.
J. Stephen Epstein and Rachel M. Joo, “Multiple Exposures: Korean
Bodies and the Transnational Imagination,” The Asia-Pacific Journal
10.33, no. 1 (2012). http://www.japanfocus.org/-Rachael_M_-Joo/3807.
Wk 9 Youth Culture and Korean B-Boys
Dec. 23
Readings
Haekyung Um, “The Poetics of Resistance and the Politics of Crossing
Borders: Korean Hip-Hop and ‘Cultural Reterritorialisation,’” Popular
Music 31, no. 1 (2013): 51–64.
Documentary Planet B-Boys, directed by Benson Lee (2007)
Wk 10 The Wired Nation: Online Gaming Empire
Dec. 30
Readings
Dal Yong Jin, “Online Game Fans: New Audience Commodities in the
New Media Era?” in Korea’s Online Gaming Empire (Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press, 2010), 101–120.
Wk 11 Korean Youth and Cyber Culture
Jan. 6
Readings
Stephen Epstein and Sun Jung, “Korean Youth and Its Discontents,”
Media International Australia, no. 141 (2011): 78–84.
Wk 12 Sport Nationalism in Korea
Jan. 13
Readings
Rachael Miyung Joo, “To Be a Global Player: Sport and Korean
Developmental Nationalism,” in Transnational Sport: Gender, Media, and
Global Korea (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2012), 35–64.
Film
Snow Piercer (dir. Bong Joonho, 2013)
Wk 13 Korean Genre Films
Jan. 20
Readings
Nikki J. Y. Lee, “Localized Globalization and a Monster National: The
Host and the South Korean Film Industry,” Cinema Journal, vol. 50, no. 3
(2011): 45-61
Film
Snow Piercer (dir. Bong Joonho, 2013)
* Due Date: writing assignment
Wk 14 Wrapping up and review of exam questions
No readings
Reviewing course materials
Information about the final exam
Jan. 27
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