• Date: September 25th, Monday, 2023, 12:00 – 13:40
• Online via Zoom

The K-drama discourse does not have an academic origin or a field. Diverse disciplines are showing interest in this area and producing research outcomes according to the modus operandi of each domain. They are making mutual references to create a loosely knitted research community. However, they have not verified the differences in their epistemologies or seriously compared the consistency of methodologies. Thus, there are difficulties in envisioning which direction K-drama should take, what kind of contributions it can make to academia, and how it will eventually turn out. K-drama research also tends to repeat the agenda raised in K-pop research, existing studies on the cultural industry, or international communication studies. There seems to be a desperate need for an exit from the current situation, to level up the quality of research discourse. It is time for K-drama researchers to tentatively define their research area through ontological questions (ontological questions, constructive elements, organization) as well as epistemological questions (research motivation, theoretical procurement, agenda). To do so, I decided to follow the thoughts of Walter Benjamin. As he finds a new starting point from hidden things, we may discover what is hidden or oppressed in K-drama and present new potential discourses as alternatives. Through this research, I will first categorize the types of K-drama, present types of K-drama depending on director and production company, show the differences of genres due to traditions of film and broadcasting fields, mention the changes including the Netflix Effect, and classify the characteristics of K-drama based on the tentative answer to the research question.

Presenter: Yongjin Won (Prof. Emeritus, Sogang Univ.)
Discussant: Taejin Yoon (Yonsei Univ.) / Juok Kim (Texas A&M Int’l Univ.)
Moderator: Sojeong Park (Center for Hallyu Studies, SNUAC)