Course Description:
This course explores popular culture—including literature, film, TV dramas, anime, manga, and pop music—moving between Korea and Japan in the twentieth century. We will start by looking at the flow of culture in the Japanese empire, with attention to how colonized Korean culture was received in Japan and vice versa. Then we will consider how systems of power and cultural dissemination in place in the empire were reconfigured in post-war and contemporary contexts. Our main focus will be on the politics of cross-cultural comparisons, adaptations, and collaborations, with an aim toward understanding the complexity of past and current Korean-Japanese relations.
Cindi L. Textor 