ATS3156 · Popular culture in North and South Korea: K-Culture to the world

Overview

In this unit you will critically examine the recent global popularity of Korean popular culture thanks to the rise of social media and OTT platforms like NETFLIX. The focus is on South Korean pop music, TV dramas, webtoons, fandom, food and K-beauty products. However, we will also be considering North and South Korean graphic novels and cinema. You will investigate how K-culture has become a global phenomenon spread thanks in part to proactive governmental policy and the global rise of OTT (Over the Top) platforms and fan-led social media networks. You will also examine the processes that have contributed to the increased consumption of Korean cultural product inside and outside the Korean peninsula. One primary focus will be on the analysis of critical approaches to the understanding of North Korean state media and South Korean commercial cultural output. In particular, you will analyse how state-centered promotion policies are tied up with notions of cultural nationalism. The aim is to move beyond fandom and to encourage you to situate the production of popular culture within the domestic and regional political, economic, commercial and industrial contexts and to critically analyse popular culture using a variety of methodological approaches. Each week you will be introduced to different methodological frameworks you can utilize to unpack popular culture. In your readings, you will also be exposed to a variety of approaches to the analysis of popular culture case studies.

Areas of study: Global Asia Korean studies

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. identify recent developments in cultural policy and output in North and South Korea and explain the significance of these changes in the light of the global spread of Korean popular culture;
2. critically examine the connection between the production, distribution and consumption of popular culture and its evolving historical, political and sociocultural contexts;
3. critically analyse primary works of popular culture (TV dramas, film, pop music videos, graphic novels) from a commercial cultural and a state media context using appropriate theoretical frameworks;
4. participate collaboratively in the community of learning via informed peer discussion of the different texts and contexts studied in the unit;
5. apply appropriate theoretical and research tools to analyse relevant case studies.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.