A weekly seminar using twelve Korean television dramas, from royal-court melodrama to barracks comedy, as primary sources for studying Korean history, society and popular culture, and for practising the difference between what a drama shows and what it dramatises.
What you will do
Watch one Korean drama a week, from a 2003 royal-court epic to a 2026 Netflix satire, and treat each as a primary source rather than a documentary. Every screening runs the same pass: what the drama gets right about its period or setting, and what it invents, and why. You'll write a short response most weeks, a close-analysis essay at the mid-point, and a final essay comparing two dramas across the semester's recurring questions — division, hierarchy, work, gender, status, appearance.
Who it is for
Second-year undergraduates with an interest in Korean media and no background in Korean Studies required. You don't need to have watched K-dramas before; you do need to arrive each week having watched the assigned episodes, since the discussion assumes it.