Contemporary Korean History, Culture and Religion

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course examines some of the main themes and issues of Korean history and culture since the late 1980s. We will often use literature and media, including short stories, feature film, documentary, TV, and popular music, as a vehicle for understanding contemporary Korean history, culture, and society. Among the major issues we will be exploring are democratization, the legacy of national division, new generation, culture industries and hallyu, cinematic re-writing of history, IMF crisis and neoliberal culture, family and gender, narratives of women, multiculturalism, and hallyu in the digital, multi-platform era.