Understanding Hallyu

Hyesu Park received her PhD in English from Ohio State University in 2014 and is currently an associate professor of English at Bellevue College, Bellevue, WA. In 2015 and 2016, she was a visiting professor at FLAME University, Pune, India. Her research interests include American and Asian-American literatures, narrative theory, media studies, and South Korean literature and popular culture. Her articles have appeared in Image and Narrative, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature, and American Book Review. Most recently, she edited Media Culture in Transnational Asia: Convergences and Divergences. Currently, she is working on a monograph, Narrating Other Minds: Alterity and Empathy in Post-1945 Asian American Literature (forthcoming).

“Hyesu Park presents innovative and distinctive approaches in understanding less-privileged areas in the transnationality of the Korean Wave. By uniquely positioning herself as literary scholar, she aptly analyzes three different forms of popular culture, literature, webtoon, and mukbang within the genealogy of Korean literature. Her unique and rich research provides new insights on the convergence of narrative, media, and Korea, which is rare, but makes the book valuable and enjoyable.” — Dal Yong Jin, Distinguished SFU Professor at Simon Fraser University, Canada“The export of Korean culture around the world is one of the most salient transmedial influences in the 21st century. In this path-breaking work, Dr. Park examines digital and cultural forces that have shaped and filtered the rise of the Korean Wave. Through a novel application of narrative theory, she examines webtoons, graphic narratives, fiction and mukbang videos to display how global audiences have come to feel, imagine, think and identify with Korean popular culture. By using semiotic and technical approaches, Dr. Park demonstrates how the digital circulation and remix culture of Korean media has produced inclusive storyworlds for a global audience. Understanding Hallyu: The Korean Wave Through Literature, Webtoon, and Mukbangprovides a perceptive account of the network effect of a dramatic new addition to Asian cultural studies.” — Maya Dodd, Assistant Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at FLAME University, India

• Introduction 1. Korean Literature Wave: Transcultural and Transnational Reading of The Vegetarian and Bad Friend 2. Korean Webtoon Wave: Narratological, Technological, and Medial Innovations of Korean Digital Comics 3. Korean Mukbang Wave: Making Sense of Eating and Broadcasting and Its Techno-Mediated Narrative Environment