ASIAN 4477 - Beauty and Violence in Korean Film

@ (LA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

E. Choi.

Korean film and literature of the modern and contemporary eras is born of a tension between two contrasting tropes – the beautiful, tranquil Orient juxtaposed against a violent and frenetic hyper-modernity. This dynamic is created by the difference between how Koreans want to identify themselves and their modern historical experiences against how the international community and the “West” still regards Korea as a part of the exotic “East.” Both identifying and challenging this dichotomy as played out in modern and contemporary Korea, the course will also explore how the two Koreas have struggled to hone a national identity. We will analyze the imagination and construction of national identity and cultural tradition (and its critique) in Korean film and literature, but also strive to understand how from the 1990s, Korea as a part of the global cosmopolitan sphere, is struggling to overcome the national. No Korean language ability is required; no background knowledge in Korean history or culture is assumed; all films are subtitled in English. (LL)