Imagined Pasts: Traditional Korea Through Film

3 units

This course is an introduction to traditional Korean culture through a selection of contemporary South Korean feature films and dramas. Films and dramas with historical themes have been very popular in Korea and across the globe. As powerful representations of the past, these contents have not just made Korean culture more accessible, but posed new issues and problems in learning about that culture. This course sets out to examine the content of historical films and dramas, investigating how "true" or "false" their representation of the past is, how they imagine and invent that past, and the ways they are useful-and not-in better understanding Korean culture and history. Some of the topics to be introduced are: kingship and court culture; Confucianism; social structure and people on the margin; gender relations and family; war and violence; science and technology; food and medicine; and the quotidian lives of people. This is also a media literacy course and students learn to engage critically with period pieces by writing comparative film essays and historical film critiques/scripts. Fulfills premodern elective for EALC major.