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The Soft Power of the Korean Wave: Parasite, BTS and Drama

Editor: Youna Kim
Author: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Publisher: , 2021
Link to online store *

From the publisher’s website:

At this fascinating historical moment, this timely collection explores the new meaning of the Korean Wave and the process of media production, representation, distribution and consumption in a global context as a distinctive and complex form of soft power.

Focusing on the most recent phenomenon of Korean popular culture, this book considers the Korean Wave in the global digital age and addresses the social, cultural and political implications in their complexity within the contexts of global inequalities and uneven power structures. The collection brings together internationally renowned scholars and regional specialists to examine this historically significant, visibly growing, yet under-explored current phenomenon in the global digital age. Drawing on a wide range of perspectives from media and communications, cultural studies, sociology, history and anthropology, and including a series of case studies from Asia, the USA, Europe and the Middle East, it provides an empirically rich and theoretically stimulating tour of this area of study, going beyond the standard Euro-American view of the evolving and complex dynamics of the media today.

This collection is essential reading for students and scholars interested in Korean popular culture and in film, media, fandom and cultural industries more widely.

Contents

Introduction: Popular Culture and Soft Power in the Social Media Age | Youna Kim

Part I Parasite

  1. Producers of Parasite and the Question of Film Authorship: Producing a Global Author, Authoring a Global Production | Dong Hoon Kim
  2. Parasite and the Global Arrival of Korean Cinema: Notes from the Underground | Charles K. Armstrong
  3. The Transcultural Logic of Capital: The House and Stairs in Parasite | Yoon Jeong Oh
  4. Gender and Class in Parasite | Kelly Y. Jeong
  5. One-Inch-Tall Barrier of Subtitles: Translating Invisibility in Parasite | Jieun Kiaer and Loli Kim

Part II BTS

  1. BTS and the World Music Industry | Kyung Hyun Kim
  2. BTS, the Highest Stage of K-pop | John Lie
  3. BTS, Alternative Masculinity and Its Discontents | Gooyong Kim
  4. Transnational Cultural Power of BTS: Digital Fan Activism in the Social Media Era | Dal Yong Jin
  5. BTS as Cultural Ambassadors: K-pop and Korea in Western Media | Sarah Keith

Part III Drama

  1. K-dramas Meet Netflix: New Models of Collaboration with the Digital West | Hyejung Ju
  2. Mediating Asian Modernities: The Lessons of Korean Dramas | Lisa Y.M. Leung
  3. The Rise of K-dramas in the Middle East: Cultural Proximity and Soft Power | Yeşim Kaptan and Murat Tutucu
  4. Korean Dramas, Circulation of Affect and Digital Assemblages: Korean Soft Power in the United States | Ji-Yeon O. Jo
  5. North Korea and South Korean Popular Culture in the Digital Age | Youna Kim

Entry on Goodreads.com here.

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.