Course Description
The goal of this course is to enjoy Korean Wave (Hallyu) as a mixture of Eastern & Western Culture and to enhance our understanding of traditional & modern Korean culture from transnational perspective. In addition, this course will help the students to acquire relevant methods to understand diverse societies and cultures in the globalizing world. Contemporary Korea inherits many traditions from the past. These traditional elements, while often less visible, still exert influence on everyday lives of ordinary Korean people. Traditions have been interacting with modern forces of development in making complex 21st century Koreans.
In order to unravel this complexity, lectures are organized around the question of “How capitalist development has transformed Korean society and culture?”
First few sessions, we will examine Korean social change historically. This includes an overview of Korean social history: rethinking Korean traditional culture, examining the Japanese colonial legacy, and estimating the influence of American popular culture in the making of contemporary Korean popular culture. Second, we will deal with the rise and spread of Korean Wave beyond Asia to America and Europe. Finally, students will have the chances to practice Korean Wave like K-Pop, K-Cinema, K-Drama and Korean traditional music etc. Students’ can do their own researches on Korean culture which cross cuts Eastern and Western culture by combining space and time. “How does Culture matter in the contemporary world in general and Korea in particular?” This is the key question all through this course.

Course schedule
Week 1 What is Korean Wave (Hallyu) ? : “Gangnam Style”(2011) & “Parasite”(2020)
Week 2 Korean Wave in action : Beyond Cultural Imperialism and Economic determinism
Week 3 The Origin of Korean Wave : American Cultural shock, Culture war, and Economic crisis
Week 4 The Foundation of Korean Wave in South Korea : IT & ‘Popular Culture Republic’
Week 5 Korean Wave in Asia : The making of ‘the 21st Century Asian Popular Culture’
Week 6 Korean Wave in the World : Digital Power & Fandom Power
Week 7 Characteristics of Korean Wave : Cultural capacity, IT power, Competition & Discipline Week 8 Practicing Korean Wave (1) : K-pop (BTS)
Week 9 Practicing Korean Wave (2) : K-Cinema (Parasite)
Week 10 Practicing Korean Wave (3) : K-Drama & Traditional Music
Week 11 Practicing Korean Wave (4) : Your Korean Wave
Week 12 What is ‘ Koreaness’ in the Globalizing Korean Wave ?

Teaching methods
Frontal teaching with the use of power point slide presentation and practicing Korean Wave through listening to music and watching clips of performances on Youtube with the students.

Evaluation
1. Classroom participation: Participation means regular attendance and active participation in class discussions. It means listening carefully, thoughtfully, and respectfully to what others are saying and responding accordingly. It also means coming to class prepared (i.e. read the assignments, think about them, and be ready to contribute to the day’s discussion). (20%)
2. One short essay (3-5 pages) on the assigned topics (20%)
3. One in-class presentation and developing the same topic into final report: In addition to participation in all class discussions, each student will sign up to serve as a discussion leader for one class. The leading student will raise questions on specific topic and manage the discussion during the class. Each student will develop the topic as a final report (10 pages) and submit it by the end of the course. (60%)

Bibliography
This course mainly deals with Korean Wave. So there are no required mandatory texts. Supplementary texts are recommended. However, in the beginning of the course there are some introductory excerpts from Cultural Sociology and Cultural Studies texts.
BOURDIEU, PIERRE, (1984), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
BOURDIEU, PIERRE, (1991), Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge, Polity Press.
JIN, DAL YONG, (2016), New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media, University of Illinois Press.
JIN, DAL YONG, (2020) Transnational Korean Cinema: Cultural Politics, Film Genres, and Digital Technologies, Rutgers University Press.
KIM, ANDREW EUNGI, (2017), Korean Society, Seoul, Korea University Press.
KIM, GOOYONG (2019), From Factory Girls to K-Pop Idol Girls, Lexington Books.
*LIE, JOHN, (2015), K-Pop: Popular Music, Cultural Amnesia, and Economic Innovation in South Korea, University of California Press.
YOON, TAE-JIN AND JIN, DAL YONG, (2017), The Korean Wave: Evolution, Fandom, and Transnationality, Lexington Books.