Korean Screen Cultures

Andrew David Jackson is Associate Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He obtained his PhD in Korean history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has previously edited two volumes: Key Papers on Korea: Essays Celebrating 25 Years of the Centre for Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London (2013) and How East Asian Films are Reshaping National Identities (2006).
Colette Balmain is Senior Lecturer in Film, TV and Media at Kingston University and specialises in East Asian cinemas and cultures. She is the editor for Directory of World Cinema: South Korea and is currently working on the second edition of her first book, Introduction to Japanese Horror Film, a monograph on South Korean horror cinema and a book on East Asian Gothic cinema.

The «Korean Wave», or Hallyu phenomenon, has brought South Korean popular culture to the global population. Studies on Korean visual culture have therefore often focused on this aspect, leaving North Korea sidelined and often considered in a negative light because of its political regime. Korean Screen Cultures sets out to redress this imbalance with a broad selection of essays spanning both North and South as well as different methodological approaches, from ethnographic and audience studies to cultural materialist readings. The first section of the book, «The South», highlights popular media - including online gaming and television drama - and concentrates on the margins, in which the very nature of «The South» is contested. «The South and the North» examines North Korea as an ideological other in South Korean popular culture as well as discussing North Korean cinema itself. «The Global» offers new approaches to Korean popular culture beyond national borders and includes work on K-pop and Korean television drama. This book is a vital addition to existing scholarship on Korean popular culture, offering a unique view by providing an imaginary unification of the two Koreas negotiated through local and transnational popular culture flows.

The «Korean Wave», or Hallyu phenomenon, has brought South Korean popular culture to the global population, but North Korean culture has often been overlooked. Korean Screen Cultures sets out to redress this imbalance with a broad selection of essays spanning both North and South, including essays on K-pop, television dramas, film and online games.

Contents: Jacob Ki Nielsen: It's a Roughneck World: Male Solidarity across Generations, Classes and Races in the TV Drama Get Up - Ji-yoon An: Blood is Thicker than Water, or is It? Depictions of «Alternative Families» in Contemporary Korean Cinema - Chloé Paberz: The Narrative of the Misfit among South Korean Game Developers - Chi-Yun Shin: Locating Cosmopolitanism in the Films of E J-Yong - Jake Bevan: «Arirang»: Addressing the Nation in South and North Korea - Stephen J. Epstein/Christopher K. Green: Now on My Way to Meet Who? South Korean Television, North Korean Refugees and the Dilemmas of Representation - Immanuel Kim: Comedy and Ideology in My Family's Problem - Andrew David Jackson: DPRK Film, Order No. 27 and the Acousmatic Voice - Hana Lee: How Are Historic Events Remembered? North Korean War Films on the Inchon Landing Operation - Mark Morris: Ch'unhyang at War: Rediscovering Franco-North Korean Film Moranbong (1959) - Jessica Conte: Framing South Korea and Vietnam's Past and Present in Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait - Juyeon Bae: Searching for Traces of Absence: Korean Diaspora in Contemporary Korean Cinema - CedarBough T. Saeji: Cosmopolitan Strivings and Racialisation: The Foreign Dancing Body in Korean Popular Music Videos - Marion Schulze: Inappropriate Desire and Heterosexuality Negotiated: The Case of Women K-Drama Watchers.