Panel 52: Contemporary Korean Literature and Music

Chair: Yeonhee Yoon, University of Notre Dame

Panelists

Tanner Rogers, University of Minnesota, “The Urban, the Rural, and the National: A Spatial Analysis of Pak Bŏm-sin’s ‘Lying Like a Blade of Grass’”

Following trends regarding space and literature, this paper utilizes the concept of space to mediate between texts and the broader socio-political context of 1970s’ South Korea. Specifically, I examine depictions of urban and rural spaces in Pak Bŏm-sin’s Lying Like a Blade of Grass (1979), a story about three young adults who come to Seoul from the countryside and experience the cruelty and violence of urban life. I first claim that descriptions of dead or dying mothers in rural hometowns and elusive opportunities in Seoul indicate both resistance toward, and reification of, the rhetoric of Park Chung Hee’s government. Second, echoing Gerhard van den Heever’s argument for the “interplay between the two levels of materiality of space construction and the representational event of space mediation,” I go beyond the “merely descriptive” and enter the realm of literary production in space. Informed by the spatial logic of the Park government that prioritized the urban space and the simultaneous centrifugal (the spreading of urbanization outward) and centripetal (the increasing reliance of citizens on Seoul) forces, I investigate the impact of literature as it moved throughout the nation. This approach provides a strong vantage point in considering physical and literary landscapes, the relationships among texts, spaces, and readerships, and the resulting political significance that emerged from these intersecting phenomena.

Moisés Park, Baylor University, “K-Cuba: Documenting Korea, Koreas, and/or Koreans in Cuba”

This presentation briefly suggests three perspectives of Cuba/Cubanness and Korea(s)/Koreanness in four 21st Century cultural productions about Koreans in Cuba. First, I examine the romantization or foreignization of revolutionary Korean-Cubanness in Song Il-Gon’s Dance of Time (2009). Second, I discuss the discourse of K-pop messianism in Park Hyo Shin’s “Home” (2016) and how the music video narrative superhumanizes South Korean tourists/on tour performers in the isle. Third, I discuss how Dai Sil Kim-Gibson’s Motherland (2006) and Joseph Juhn’s Jerónimo (2019) represent messianism but evolve the narrative into humanization of seemingly apolitical Koreanness.

Amanda Sikarskie, University of Michigan, “K-Pop Idols as Brand Ambassadors”

Korean artists have immense global appeal in the 2020s. (For example, Dior ambassador BTS Jimin’s solo single “Like Crazy” debuted atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on April 8, 2023, above the likes of Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift.) And this is true not only on the music charts, but also, at global fashion weeks. Thanks to hugely popular groups like Big Bang, Blackpink, and BTS breaking through and conquering global charts, younger groups like Enhypen, NewJeans and Tomorrow x Together have had an easier rise to global popularity. And members from other groups contemporary to Big Bang and BTS, like EXO’s Lay and GOT7’s BamBam and Jackson, have also experienced recent success as global ambassadors. Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, has rendered Korean culture a global commodity, with K-drama, K-beauty, K-food, and of course, K-pop, serving as lucrative exports, building both South Korea’s wealth and soft power. While Korean designers first took note of the power of K-pop idols as fashion influencers, global brands quickly jumped on board the Korean Wave. The individual BTS members, for example, serve as brand ambassadors for the following: Jin for Jin Ramen, Suga for Valentino and the NBA, J-Hope for Louis Vuitton, RM for Bottega Veneta, the South Korean National Defense Ministry, and Iloom (a Korean furniture brand), Jimin for Dior and Tiffany & Co., V for Celine, Cartier, Compose Coffee, Indonesian securities company SimInvest, and Seoul Tourism, and Jungkook for Calvin Klein. (The group members are listed in descending order of age, as is customary in Korea.) This essay will explore K-idols as global brand ambassadors and collaborators, using megagroup BTS as a case study—Jimin for Dior, Suga for Valentino, V for Celine, and Jungkook for Calvin Klein, as well as the mandatory military service as a major complicating factor in the careers of male Korean idols as brand ambassadors.