Korean Popular Culture

(4 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This unit presents multiple aspects of popular culture in South and North Korea, from K-pop to blockbuster movies, popular literature, internet culture, video games and socialist mass culture. It approaches Korea's cultural industries historically and critically, questioning their relationships to colonialism, militarism, social hierarchies, national identities, and economic globalization. Primary reading materials are drawn from a variety of genres and media to reflect the diversity of popular culture in the two Koreas.