<div dir="ltr"><p>Call for Submissions to a Special Issue for <em>Journal of Popular Film and Television</em><br></p><p>Korean Popular Cinema and Television in the 21st Century</p><p>Edited by Jihoon Kim, Dept. of Film Studies, Chung-ang University, South Korea</p><p><br></p><p>During
the last several years, both Korean cinema and Korean television dramas
(and K-pop tracks/stars as well, to be sure) have gained not simply
dramatically increased popularity beyond the Pan-Asian scope of the
first ‘Korean wave (hallyu)’ (across North and South Americas and
Europe), but also critical attention in the academia of cinema studies,
cultural studies, and East Asian/Korean studies. Despite these
situations, previous studies on Korean cinema and television have
highlighted only a limited set of texts: despite a couple of recent
edited collections dedicated to nationally popular genre films such as
horror and film noir, most scholarly writings on Korean cinema have
still privileged films directed by so-called ‘auteurs’ (Kim Ki-duk, Hong
Sang-soo, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, and Lee Chang-dong) that were
already established in global film culture and academia, thus leaving
unexamined a series of popular Korean films that have not simply had
enormous commercial success in the domestic box office but also had
notable cultural influences on Korean audiences’ collective desire,
historical imaginary, and optical unconscious. Likewise, most of the
existing studies on Korean television have discussed only a few
canonical television dramas in the first Korean wave era. The academia’s
failure to catch up with the rapidly growing popularity of Korean
network and cable television programs on both domestic and transnational
levels has left to be uncharted territories many important key cultural
texts during the last few years. These include recent television dramas
that enjoyed either domestic critical attention (for instance, the
Reply series [1997, 1994, 1988], Misaeng (2014), and Signal [2016]) or
transnational spectatorship and stardom (for instance, My Love from the
Star [2013-4] and Descendants of the Sun [2016]), as well as various
reality TV programs across different formats and subjects (Infinity
Challenge, Running Men, music competition shows [Superstar K, K-Pop
Star, Show Me the Money, Un-pretty Rap Star, and Produce 101], and
Food/Cooking TV programs).</p><p>This special issue of<em> Journal of Popular Film and Television</em>
aims to fill these wide vacancies in the current scholarship of Korean
cinema and television studies, thereby expanding its scope into critical
investigations of the previously unexamined key texts and genres, their
relations to Korea’s social, political, and cultural contexts, and
their transnational appeals from industrial and cultural perspectives.
Possible topics include, but not are limited to:<br></p><p>- Genre conventions and their subversion/mixture (the films of Bong Joon-ho, Ryu Seung-wan, Kim Ji-woon, and Na Hong-jin)</p><p>-
Recent Korean film noir/thriller movies and their treatment of the
society’s political and economic antinomies (New World [2013], Veteran
[2015], Inside Men [2015])</p><p>- Social reality dramas or films based on the true story (Silenced [2011], The Attorney [2013], Han Gong-ju [2013])</p><p>-
Recent Korean blockbuster films, their (CGI)
technology/aesthetics/pleasures (Thieves [2012], Roaring Currents
[2014], Ode to My Father [2014])</p><p>- Historical films/costume dramas
and their historical imaginary, including the imagery of the
colonial/postcolonial history (Masquerade [2012], Assassination [2015],
The Handmaiden [2016])</p><p>- Transnational popular films/dramas, including their stardom and industry</p><p>-
Cultural nostalgia in popular films and TV dramas/reality shows (The
Attorney, Ode to My Father, the Reply series, and the television shows
[Sugarman (2016), for instance] on the 1990s’ pop music)</p><p>- Key
recent Korean television dramas, narratives, styles, and their cultural
identities (class struggle, gender, sexuality, religion, generational
difference, Pan-Asian identity)</p><p>- Korean reality TV programs across different genres and formats (including music competition shows and Food/cooking TV)</p><p>- Korean TV’s spreadability, transnational impacts and participatory fan culture</p><p> <br>The
CFP encourages a variety of academic, historical, critical, analytical,
and theoretical approaches, as well as submissions from authors in the
popular press. Submissions should be limited to twenty-five pages,
double-spaced, and conform to MLA style. Please include a fifty-word
abstract and five to seven key words to facilitate online searches. Send
an electronic copy no later than June 30, 2017 to Jihoon Kim
(<a href="mailto:jihoonfelix@gmail.com">jihoonfelix@gmail.com</a>).</p><p>For more information on the journal and
its style, please see
<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=vjpf20">http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=vjpf20</a></p><p><br></p><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Jihoon Kim<br>Author of <b><i>Between Film, Video, and the Digital: Hybrid Moving Images in the Post-media Age</i></b><br><a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/between-film-video-and-the-digital-9781628922912/" target="_blank">http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/between-film-video-and-the-digital-9781628922912/</a><br clear="all"><br>Assistant Professor, Cinema and Media Studies<br>Department of Film Studies<br>Chung-ang University<br><br>website: <a href="http://chungang.academia.edu/JKIM" target="_blank">chungang.academia.edu/JKIM</a><br></div><div>Art Center (301-dong) RM 507<br>221 Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu<br>Seoul, South Korea 156-756<br>Tel: 82-2) 820-5471<br></div>Mobile: 82-10) 2929-1895<br></div></div></div></div></div>
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