Statelesness in the Streaming Era: Animating Korean Identity for Local and Global Audiences
by Daniel Martin, Associate Professor in the School of Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences, KAIST
This talk offers an overview of some significant trends in the historical and recent development of the South Korean animation industry, considering the ambitions of filmmakers as they relate to various measures of ‘success’ in terms of both cultural and economic impact, and the vital significance of debates around national identity and statelessness in the consumption of media content. We will interrogate several key case studies in terms of their economic impact and cultural odor, drawing on the work of Koichi Iwabuchi and Susan Napier’s deployment of ‘mukokuseki’ as a theoretical framework to consider the ability and inclination of Korean animation to differentiate itself from competitors by expressing specifically Korean sensibilities.
