This course focuses on the movie arenas of the Korean Peninsula, starting from the colonial era, with a particular emphasis on South Korea. The manifold topics in the fields of Korean culture, history, and politics are narrated and understood in unconventional ways through the engagement of non-written texts and non-textual materials of cinematic works. The course uses arts, films, dramas, music to lead students through a journey of how colonial rule, the Korean War, economic development, the financial crisis and the rise of inequality and polarization, the emergence of democratization movement and a multicultural society in South Korea, and relations between the two Koreas can be narrated and understood from fresh and non-traditional aspects. Through the course, diverse works will be represented both from the movie arena and literature of the northern and the southern sides. Upon completion of this course, the students will be able: - to demonstrate an understanding of the key milestones in the historical development of the "visual literary," the national cinemas of the two Koreas, - to have an ability to critically evaluate the analyzed core works, an awareness of significant link to the cultural, social and political life of both sides of the peninsula, - to develop critical thinking skills and employing them in their research. - to acknowledge and explain the re-shaping of class, gender, and identity roles, - to examine a reflection of the main socio-political shifts and trends in the two Koreas' societies through their visual cultures. In addition, the course will equip students with knowledge and concepts for comprehensive understanding of contemporary society and cinema/visual cultures of the two Koreas.
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