Envisioning a Future Reality: South Korean Television Entertainment Programs’ Depictions of the US Military Stationed in Korea
Envisioning a Future Reality: South Korean Television Entertainment Programs’ Depictions of the US Military Stationed in Korea

Summary/Abstract: The US military presence in South Korea [hereby Korea] in the aftermath of the Korean War has been a politically sensitive and contentious issue for Korea. While the relationship between the US military and Korea has often been characterized in Korean popular and scholarly discourse as neocolonial, I argue that in recent years, Korean yeneung (television entertainment programs) have been reversing such power dynamics in how they depict US soldiers. They contest the image of Korea as a neocolonial nation-state and portray it as a powerful and aspirational one. Such nationalistic portrayals of the relationship between the two countries coincide with the nation’s rise in economic and cultural status. I build on theories derived from Media Studies and scholarship on national identity formation. I use the theoretical framework of “illusions of reality” to analyze the Korean popular media depictions of US soldiers stationed in Korea. I contend that yeneung mobilize illusions of reality to depict an aspirational future reality where the neocolonial power dynamics between the US military and Korea are reversed and where stereotypes that the US held of Korea are mirrored and projected back onto the US.

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