New Books in Korean Studies

Pil Ho Kim, "Polarizing Dreams: Gangnam and Popular Culture in Globalizing Korea" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)


Listen Later

Gangnam is an exclusive zone of privilege and wealth that has lured South Korean pop culture industries since the 1980s and fueled the aspirations of Seoul’s middle class, producing in its wake the “dialectical images” of the modern city described by Walter Benjamin: sweet dreams and nightmares, visions of heaven and hell, scenes of spectacular rises and great falls. 

In Polarizing Dreams: Gangnam and Popular Culture in Globalizing Korea (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2024), Pil Ho Kim weaves together dissident poetry and protest songs from the 1980s, B-rated adult films, tour bus disco music, obscure early works by famous authors and filmmakers, interviews with sex workers and urban entrepreneurs, and other sources to show how Gangnam is at the heart of Korea’s global-polarization.

Dr. Pil Ho Kim is Associate Professor of Korean in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University. A sociologist by training, he has been studying and teaching a wide range of topics related to modern Korea, including popular music, cinema, literature, urban culture, and social polarization.


Leslie Hickman is a translator and writer. She has an MA in Korean Studies from Yonsei University and lives in Seoul, South Korea. You can follow her activities at https://twitter.com/AJuseyo.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/korean-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in Korean StudiesBy New Books Network

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

4 ratings


More shows like New Books in Korean Studies

View all
Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,178 Listeners

1A by NPR

1A

4,625 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,115 Listeners

Today, Explained by Vox

Today, Explained

10,072 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

2,941 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,285 Listeners