K Is for Korea: Reading a Culture through Pages, Soundscapes, and Images

Harvard FAS

BTS, Parasite, K-pop, and Han Kang are widely recognizable icons of Korea today. With the global spread of “K-culture” and the increasing use of the prefix “K-” to signal cultural value and visibility, this course asks: what does it mean to read culture as a text? What kinds of cultural forms are produced, curated, consumed, and performed as “Korean,” and why? How can historical perspectives complicate and deepen our understanding of contemporary Korea? In this course, students will examine…