Translational Echoes of the Korean War

Catalog description

This course explores how the emergence of cinematic, televisual and literary dimensions of hallyu, or the Korean wave, provides an opportunity to reckon with the complex formations of war, empire and capitalism that have linked the histories of Korea and the United States. Judging by the remarkable popularity of the film Parasite, the Netflix series Squid Game and Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, Americans seem to have developed an interest in the darker aspects of South Korean contemporary life and the violent events that have shaped them: a devasting civil war and decades under the repressive rule of military dictatorships, which were both shaped by the exigencies of US empire. We explore ways of analyzing such works that combine an understanding of the interlocking histories they illuminate with a critical awareness of the aesthetic and formal strategies that structure them.