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Melodramatic Tactics for Survival in the Neoliberal Era: Excess and Justice in The Heirs and My Love from the Star

Melodramatic Tactics for Survival in the Neoliberal Era: Excess and Justice in The Heirs and My... This article examines two 2013 TV miniseries, The Heirs and My Love from the Star, by relating their melodramatic aesthetics to the survivalist imperative under neoliberal governance. From the colonial sinp’a theater to Golden Age films, melodrama has operated as a popular mode of imagination that expresses inarticulate experiences generated over the course of Korea’s modernization. To extend and complicate existing scholarship on modern melodrama, this study approaches recent K-dramas’ melodramatic modes as both an affective response to and an everyday tactic for coping with failing economic democracy in contemporary Korea. In this light, the intensifying fantastic elements of the genre are deemed not so much anachronistic as tactical, as they are deployed to reclaim the justice and equality that are felt to be hopelessly disappearing in daily lives. As I look at their excessive aesthetics within the context of diminishing social mobility in the neoliberal era, my analysis of the two miniseries further notes the gendered structure of these melodramatic fantasies in which the survival of women, who have fewer privileges, is achieved through the reform of male elites. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Korean Studies Duke University Press

Melodramatic Tactics for Survival in the Neoliberal Era: Excess and Justice in The Heirs and My Love from the Star

Yi, We Jung
Journal of Korean Studies , Volume 23 (1) – Mar 1, 2018
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21 pages

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Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
ISSN
0731-1613
eISSN
2158-1665
DOI
10.1215/21581665-4339098
Publisher site
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Abstract

This article examines two 2013 TV miniseries, The Heirs and My Love from the Star, by relating their melodramatic aesthetics to the survivalist imperative under neoliberal governance. From the colonial sinp’a theater to Golden Age films, melodrama has operated as a popular mode of imagination that expresses inarticulate experiences generated over the course of Korea’s modernization. To extend and complicate existing scholarship on modern melodrama, this study approaches recent K-dramas’ melodramatic modes as both an affective response to and an everyday tactic for coping with failing economic democracy in contemporary Korea. In this light, the intensifying fantastic elements of the genre are deemed not so much anachronistic as tactical, as they are deployed to reclaim the justice and equality that are felt to be hopelessly disappearing in daily lives. As I look at their excessive aesthetics within the context of diminishing social mobility in the neoliberal era, my analysis of the two miniseries further notes the gendered structure of these melodramatic fantasies in which the survival of women, who have fewer privileges, is achieved through the reform of male elites.

Journal

Journal of Korean Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2018

References

  • Melodramatic Texts and Contexts: Women’s Lives, Movies, and Men
    Abelmann, Nancy Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen
  • Introduction: Gender, Genre, and Nation
    Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen
  • Culture and Communication: Toward an Ethnographic Critique of Media Consumption in the Transnational Media System
    Ang, Ien
  • Refugee Theatre: Melodrama and Modernity’s Loss
    Buckley, Matthew
  • Chaebol under Fire amid South Korean Scandals
  • Compressed Modernity and Its Discontents: South Korean Society in Transition
    Chang, Kyung-Sup
  • China Focus: Popular Korean TV Series Draws Online Paying Users
  • Chungguk ‘Pyŏl kŭdae’ yŏlp’ung hwaksan saeroun hallyu ikkŭlkka
  • Debating Economic Democracy in South Korea: The Costs of Commensurability
    Doucette, Jamie
  • Melodrama, Serial Form, and Television Today
    Feuer, Jane
  • Sinjayujuŭi sidae ŭi Han’guk munhwa
    Kang, Naehŭi
  • Kim Ŭnsuk tŭrama ŭi sŭt’orit’elling i kannŭn hwansangsŏng yŏn’gu: P’ari ŭi yŏnin (2004), Sik’ŭrit kadŭn (2010), Sangsokchadŭl (2013) ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Kim, Chihye
  • Sŏbaibŏl, saengjonjuŭi kŭrigo ch’ŏngnyŏn sedae
    Kim, Hongjung
  • Korean Mothering and Education: A Hermeneutic Journey of Understanding
    Kim, Hyekyung
  • For the Eyes of North Koreans? Politics of Money and Class in Boys over Flowers
    Kim, Suk-Young Kim, Youna
  • What a Girl’s Gotta Do: The Labor of the Biopolitical Celebrity in Austerity Britain
    Kokoli, Alexandra M. Winter, Aaron
  • Melodrama and Tears
    Neale, Steve
  • Nunbusin ‘T’aeyang ŭi huye’. . .‘sajŏn chejak p’ilp’ae’ soksŏl kkaeda
  • ‘Hel Chosŏn,’ ch’eje rŭl yuji hanŭn p’agungnon
    Pak, Kwŏnil
  • Han’guk mellodŭrama ŭi hyŏngsŏng kwajŏng yŏn’gu: Chŏnŏllijŭm e nat’anan ‘mellodŭrama’ changnŭ kaenyŏm ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Pak, Yuhŭi
  • Chagi kyebal hanŭn chuch’e ŭi haebuhak hogŭn kŭrobut’ŏ muŏt ŭl paeul kŏt in’ga
    Sŏ, Tongjin
  • Sinjayujuŭi ihu ŭi kyŏngje wa yŏsŏng
    Yi, Chuhŭi
  • Han’guk mello yŏnghwa ŭi tayanghan punhwa yangsang—1990-yŏndae huban’gi ihu Han’guk namsŏng mello yŏnghwa
    Yi, Hyŏn’gyŏng Yŏnʼguhoe, Taejung Sŏsa Changnŭ
  • Mellodŭrama ŭi kŭndaejŏk sangsangnyŏk—1910-yŏndae sinp’agŭk ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yi, Sŭnghŭi
  • Han’guk yŏnghwasa yŏn’gu ŭi hyŏndan’gye: Sinp’a, mellodŭrama, riŏllijŭm tamnon ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yi, Sunjin
  • Tijit’ŏl sidae, Han’guk t’ellebijŏn tŭrama ŭi kusŏng kwa sot’ong pangsik koch’al—2000-yŏndae mini sirijŭ rŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yun, Sŏkchin
  • Melodramatic Texts and Contexts: Women’s Lives, Movies, and Men
    Abelmann, Nancy Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen
  • Introduction: Gender, Genre, and Nation
    Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen Abelmann, Nancy McHugh, Kathleen
  • Culture and Communication: Toward an Ethnographic Critique of Media Consumption in the Transnational Media System
    Ang, Ien
  • Refugee Theatre: Melodrama and Modernity’s Loss
    Buckley, Matthew
  • Chaebol under Fire amid South Korean Scandals
  • Compressed Modernity and Its Discontents: South Korean Society in Transition
    Chang, Kyung-Sup
  • China Focus: Popular Korean TV Series Draws Online Paying Users
  • Chungguk ‘Pyŏl kŭdae’ yŏlp’ung hwaksan saeroun hallyu ikkŭlkka
  • Debating Economic Democracy in South Korea: The Costs of Commensurability
    Doucette, Jamie
  • Melodrama, Serial Form, and Television Today
    Feuer, Jane
  • Sinjayujuŭi sidae ŭi Han’guk munhwa
    Kang, Naehŭi
  • Kim Ŭnsuk tŭrama ŭi sŭt’orit’elling i kannŭn hwansangsŏng yŏn’gu: P’ari ŭi yŏnin (2004), Sik’ŭrit kadŭn (2010), Sangsokchadŭl (2013) ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Kim, Chihye
  • Sŏbaibŏl, saengjonjuŭi kŭrigo ch’ŏngnyŏn sedae
    Kim, Hongjung
  • Korean Mothering and Education: A Hermeneutic Journey of Understanding
    Kim, Hyekyung
  • For the Eyes of North Koreans? Politics of Money and Class in Boys over Flowers
    Kim, Suk-Young Kim, Youna
  • What a Girl’s Gotta Do: The Labor of the Biopolitical Celebrity in Austerity Britain
    Kokoli, Alexandra M. Winter, Aaron
  • Melodrama and Tears
    Neale, Steve
  • Nunbusin ‘T’aeyang ŭi huye’. . .‘sajŏn chejak p’ilp’ae’ soksŏl kkaeda
  • ‘Hel Chosŏn,’ ch’eje rŭl yuji hanŭn p’agungnon
    Pak, Kwŏnil
  • Han’guk mellodŭrama ŭi hyŏngsŏng kwajŏng yŏn’gu: Chŏnŏllijŭm e nat’anan ‘mellodŭrama’ changnŭ kaenyŏm ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Pak, Yuhŭi
  • Chagi kyebal hanŭn chuch’e ŭi haebuhak hogŭn kŭrobut’ŏ muŏt ŭl paeul kŏt in’ga
    Sŏ, Tongjin
  • Sinjayujuŭi ihu ŭi kyŏngje wa yŏsŏng
    Yi, Chuhŭi
  • Han’guk mello yŏnghwa ŭi tayanghan punhwa yangsang—1990-yŏndae huban’gi ihu Han’guk namsŏng mello yŏnghwa
    Yi, Hyŏn’gyŏng Yŏnʼguhoe, Taejung Sŏsa Changnŭ
  • Mellodŭrama ŭi kŭndaejŏk sangsangnyŏk—1910-yŏndae sinp’agŭk ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yi, Sŭnghŭi
  • Han’guk yŏnghwasa yŏn’gu ŭi hyŏndan’gye: Sinp’a, mellodŭrama, riŏllijŭm tamnon ŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yi, Sunjin
  • Tijit’ŏl sidae, Han’guk t’ellebijŏn tŭrama ŭi kusŏng kwa sot’ong pangsik koch’al—2000-yŏndae mini sirijŭ rŭl chungsim ŭro
    Yun, Sŏkchin