[KS] American Culture in Korea: Possible Research Sources

goodwin goodwin at nas.net
Wed Jun 16 10:01:08 EDT 1999


Dear Mr. Rudiger:

The following items may be of help to your student.  I have found that while
these works focus -analytically- on the negative impact/image of the U.S. in/on
Korea, they nonetheless provide a lot of "food for thought" on the positive
aspects as well.  This is particularly true of item #3 (as I note below).  In
the end, however, what is "negative" and what is "positive" is itself a
question requiring some degree of personal interpretation.  So these are, I
think, generally quite informative.  (And of course, they have large
bibliographies for further probing.)

1) "Cultural Representation of Anti-Americansim: The Negative Images of The
Unites States in South Korean Literature and Arts, 1945-1994" Lee Jae Bong
U.Hawaii 1994 DAI-A 56/02

N.B. DAI is "Dissertations Abstracts International".  This Ph.D. thesis is
available from DAI.  Full citation is available on DAI database.


2) "Anti Americanism in South Korea: The Media and The Politics of
Signification" Lee Jae Kyoung U.Iowa 1993 DAI-A 55/03

N.B. This Gramscian-inspired work assess the Korean media's "distortion" of
U.S. policy.  The title, therefore, ought not to be interpreted as indicating
the thesis one-sidedly explores anti-American sentiments.


3)  "Mass Media and The Reproduction of The International Order:  Presentation
of American Culture by American Television Programs Aired in Korea, 1970 to
1989"  Yoon Tae Jin 1997 DAI-A 58/07

N.B. This work explores what its author argues are, "the fundamental
philosophies of the U.S."


FInally, many of the "collections" of articles that appeared around the time of
the "centennial" celebration of Korean-American relations (1982) contain
interesting reflections on Korean American cross-cultural perceptions.  To
search for these in the library the LCSH subject heading would be:
Korea-Foreign Relations-United States (and the reverse).
Here are 2 good examples from my local library:
http://morris.mcmaster.ca/webpac-bin/wgbroker

http://morris.mcmaster.ca/webpac-bin/wgbroker?061609385704037371+1+search+select++10+0

Especially good as well is this article: "Acceptance of American Culture in
Korea..." by Hy-Sop Lim in, "After One Hundred Years:Continuity and Change in
Korean-American Relations" ed. Sung-joo Han, Asiatic Research Centre, Korea U.,
1982.  The "Korea Briefing" series (Westview Press?) contains several articles
of this sort too.

I'd be pleased to respond to your student directly should he or she have
further questions.  There are many other theses that may be relevant.

Mike Goodwin (Toronto)

Rüdiger Frank wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> one of my students wants to do some research on the reception and the
> influence of American culture in (South) Korea. If you have worked on this
> topic or know some body who did, please contact me directly, I will forward
> your messages to her. Hints on published M.A. thesis, dissertations,
> discussion papers etc. are also welcome.
>
> Your help is highly appreciated,
>
> Rudiger Frank
>
> ***********************
> Ruediger FRANK
> Humboldt-University Berlin
> Korea Institute
> Fon: +49-30-55 99 878
> Fax: +49-30-2093-6666
> e-mail: ruediger.frank at rz.hu-berlin.de
> Web: http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/korea
> ***********************



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