Hegemonic Mimicry

Korean Popular Culture of the Twenty-First Century

Kyung Hyun Kim author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Duke University Press

Published:19th Nov '21

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Hegemonic Mimicry cover

In Hegemonic Mimicry, Kyung Hyun Kim considers the recent global success of Korean popular culture—the Korean wave of pop music, cinema, and television, which is also known as hallyu—from a transnational and transcultural perspective. Using the concept of mimicry to think through hallyu's adaptation of American sensibilities and genres, he shows how the commercialization of Korean popular culture has upended the familiar dynamic of major-to-minor cultural influence, enabling hallyu to become a dominant global cultural phenomenon. At the same time, its worldwide popularity has rendered its Koreanness opaque. Kim argues that Korean cultural subjectivity over the past two decades is one steeped in ethnic rather than national identity. Explaining how South Korea leaped over the linguistic and cultural walls surrounding a supposedly “minor” culture to achieve global ascendance, Kim positions K-pop, Korean cinema and television serials, and even electronics as transformative acts of reappropriation that have created a hegemonic global ethnic identity.

“Hegemonic Mimicry presents a much-needed update on today's South Korean pop culture—one of the most fascinating epicenters of global cultural flows. Offering a probing insight into a wide spectrum of media productions, it is bound to be a must-read for those hoping to capture the symptomatic signs of the new millennium.” -- Suk-Young Kim, author of * K-Pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance *
“Hegemonic Mimicry provides insightful, critical analyses of Korean cultural products explored through a variety of lenses: national identity, transnationalism, convergence, social class, Confucianism, simulacra, and cynicism. Unlike many previous studies, Kyung Hyun Kim's book is very effective in theorizing developments in hallyu and its global proliferation. Anyone interested in contemporary Korean culture will learn a lot from this book and enjoy Kim's ability to connect ideas and events in brilliant new ways.” -- Roald Maliangkay, author of * Broken Voices: Postcolonial Entanglements and the Preservation of Korea’s Central Folksong Traditions *
“Hegemonic Mimicry is an impressive volume that outlines the reasons behind the recent global success of South Korean popular culture.... Kim’s erudition is considerable, something to be expected given his two earlier well-received monographs.” -- Keith Howard * Asian Studies Review *
"Hegemonic Mimicry is a valuable and significant contribution to the literature on Korean popular culture studies by introducing the concept of ‘hegemonic mimicry’ in detail and approaching Korean popular culture in an interdisciplinary way. This feature of the book will attract scholars from various academic disciplines as well as university students from different backgrounds." -- Beyza Dogan * LSE Review of Books *
“This book and its central premise will go far. Kim’s concept of and coinage of the term hegemonic mimicry alone will no doubt appear in countless essays, book chapters and discussions of South Korean popular culture. . . . Kim is the real deal, a genuine intellect and the book successfully captures the author’s voice and it is filled with insight that will be of interest to both cinema scholars and those who study Asian popular culture.” -- Robert Hyland * Asian Cinema *
"Hegemonic Mimicry is a critical addition to Korean popular culture studies literature and will surely be an essential foundation for future studies." -- Jung-Min Mina Lee * Journal of Asian Studies *

"A timely response to the explosive demand for a textbook that provides both historical and theoretical frameworks to analyze the global popularity of contemporary South Korean popular culture, including K-pop music, cinema, television, and online subcultures."

-- Soyi Kim * Cultural Critique *

"Hegemonic Mimicry is a timely book that provides an updated overview of Korean popular culture. ... [It] offers readers an insightful perspective on the media we consume every day."

-- Sojeong Park * Korean Studies *

ISBN: 9781478013587

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 590g

328 pages