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ID: 186804

K-drama narrates the national: Korean identities in crash landing on you / Son, Sarah A; Schwak, Juliette

Son, Sarah A	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This article considers how a very popular South Korean TV drama, Crash Landing on You, both interprets and produces Korean identity through its imagining of the 'national'. We draw on constructivist literature that explores the biographical parameters of national identity narratives and their significance in global politics to examine changing representations of North Korea on South Korean screens. We analyze Crash Landing as a set of representations that mirror South Korea's construction of Korean national identit(ies), with real-world, sociopolitical consequences. We argue that nostalgic depictions of North Korea on screen situate it as the receptacle of a Korean past characterized by ruralness and intimate community life. In contrast, capitalist (post-)modernity is South Korea's inescapable present, signifying its material victory over the North by virtue of its developmental successes. Finally, reunification is the future-oriented project that unites the divided biographical trajectories of both Koreas but remains materially elusive.

Key Words

Conflict ; North Korea ; South Korea ; National Identity ; Reunification ; Popular Culture ;
International Relations

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ID: 173919

Nothing new under the sun: South Korea’s developmental promises and neoliberal illusions / Schwak, Juliette

Schwak, Juliette	Journal Article
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The Korean government has strategically promoted the country’s development assistance policies as an alternative to traditional donors’ failed development promises and disguised neo-imperialist policies. This article questions the adequacy of fit between this narrative of exceptionalism and the reality of Korea’s developmental policy prescriptions. Based on field interviews and an analysis of policy recommendation reports produced by the Economic Development Cooperation Fund’s Knowledge Sharing Program, this article shows that Korea is actually ‘kicking away the ladder’ by offering neoliberal prescriptions that are much more in line with global developmental liberalism than its own promotional narrative suggests. Korea is merely aligning itself with the global development status quo. But these prescriptions ease chaebols’ entry in developing markets and contribute to exporting an oppressive chaebol-led transnational labour regime, notably in the Philippines.

Key Words

Development ; South Korea ; Philippines ; Labour ; Neoliberalism

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