Mod/Cont. Korean

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This is a survey course designed to introduce significant Korean artistic practices during the 20th and 21st centuries. This course aims to identify the unique patterns of cultural and artistic construction throughout the modernization and globalization of Korea. During the 20th century, Koreans experienced traumatic events and drastic changes, including Japanese colonization, forced labor, the Korean War, ideological battles, and the division of the North and the South. Even after the Korean War, Koreans experienced military dictatorships, a rough process of democratization, and, after the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a breakneck pace of economic development and globalization that created many inequalities and side effects. These social and political changes result in accumulated “collective trauma” that has persisted through generations and has had lingering effects on contemporary Korean artists who strive for cultural healing. Topics covered in this course include constructing Korean ethnic nationalism, the vernacular modernism, performance art, conceptual art, feminism, dansaekhwa (Korean monochrome), minjung art (people’s art), pop Art, consumerism, Korean diaspora, postmodernism, and media art. No prior knowledge of Korean art is required. For more information about this and other courses in the Department of Art and Art History, please visit https://art.georgetown.edu This course is not available to audit.