Korean Screen Cultures: Interrogating Cinema, TV, Music and Online Games

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.

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.