Introduction to Korean Culture

Instructor: Professor Yoon

Office: #314 Case Hall (Graduate School Building)

Course Description:
What is culture? How do we study it? Is culture defined and confined by national boundaries?
How might one nation’s culture change and/or be influenced by external forces? This course
answers this set of questions. In particular, we will study how various social institutions—such
as the family, the workplace, the nation, and the school system—help shape contemporary
understandings of Korean culture. Each week focuses on the influence of a specific type of
institutional force through formal lectures, classroom discussion, and students’ presentations.

Course Requirements and Grading Procedures:

1. Class Presentation (15%)
2. Class Attendance and Participation (15%)
3. Weekly Memos (20%)
4. Midterm Exam (20%)
5. Final Exam (30%)

Class Attendance and Participation

You are expected to arrive on time and fully prepared to engage in class discussion having
carefully read assigned readings. You are allowed one free absence throughout the course of the
semester before your grade is affected. Further absences will result in a deduction of points from
your attendance grade. For every two absences, your grade will be deducted a half a grade (from
an A to an A-). You may use your laptop computers to record notes only. Usage of smartphones,
web browsing, or any other type of computer/internet activity will not be tolerated. Tardiness,
failure to properly participate, and lack of concentration during class will also be reflected in
your grade.

Class Presentation
In order to encourage engagement in academic debates in the classroom, you will be asked to
work in a small group to critically evaluate one or more of the readings assigned for class. You
will be asked to complete one group presentation during the first half of the semester (before
midterms), and another one at the second half. The presentation should be about fifteen minutes
long, expanding on the concepts learned during class. More details on the criteria for evaluation
will be handed out later during the semester.

Weekly Memos
At the beginning of class on every Monday (once a week), you will be asked to turn in a short
response to the readings assigned for that day. Memos should be printed and handed in at the
beginning of class. No late memos will be accepted. The memo should be at least one page long,
12 point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. The response should
sufficiently summarize the readings and provide a thoughtful critique of how you have
interpreted their significance.

Grading
I am happy to explain why you received the grade you did on any assignment or exam and to
discuss how you might improve your performance in the future. But be advised that grades are
not open to negotiation. No begging, pleading, crying, arguing, or any other means will persuade
me to change your grade for any reason other than for an error in calculation.

Academic Integrity
Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own
work. You are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in
lecture and the sections with other students. You can give "consulting" help to or receive
"consulting" help from such students. However, this permissible cooperation should never
involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in
the form of an e-mail, an e-mail attachment file, a diskette, or a hard copy. Should copying occur,
both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be
copied will both automatically receive a zero for the assignment. Penalty for violation of this
Code can also be extended to include failure of the course and University disciplinary action.
During examinations, you must do your own work. Talking or discussion is not permitted during
the examinations, nor may you compare papers, copy from others, or collaborate in any way.
Any collaborative behavior during the examinations will result in failure of the exam, and may
lead to failure of the course and disciplinary action.

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: The Korean Village

 Kendall, Laurel. "Wood Imps, Ghosts, and Other Noxious Influences: The Ideology of
Affliction in a Korean Village." Journal of Korean Studies 3.1 (1981): 113-145.

Week 3: Confucianism and the Family

 Park, Insook Han, and Lee-Jay Cho. "Confucianism and the Korean family." Journal of
Comparative Family Studies (1995): 117-134.

Week 4: Shamanism and Gender

 Kendall, Laurel. Shamans, housewives, and other restless spirits: Women in Korean ritual
life. University of Hawaii Press, 1987. (Selections)
 Kendall, Laurel. "Wives, lesser wives, and ghosts: Supernatural conflict in a Korean
village." Asian Folklore Studies (1984): 215-225.

Week 5: The Korean Military and Masculinities

 Moon, Seungsook. Militarized modernity and gendered citizenship in South Korea. Duke
University Press, 2005. (Selections)

Week 6: Corporate Culture

 Janelli, Roger L., and Dawnhee Yim. Making capitalism: The social and cultural
construction of a South Korean conglomerate. Stanford University Press, 1993.

Week 7: The Korean Education System

 Seth, Michael J. Education fever: Society, politics, and the pursuit of schooling in South
Korea. University of Hawaii Press, 2002.
Week 8: Midterm

Week 9: Transgressive Culture and Urban Space

 Schober, Elisabeth. "Itaewon's suspense: masculinities, place‐making and the US Armed
Forces in a Seoul entertainment district." Social Anthropology22.1 (2014): 36-51.

Week 10: Middle Class Identity and Conspicuous Consumption

 Nelson, Laura C. Measured excess: Status, gender, and consumer nationalism in South
Korea. Columbia University Press, 2000. (Selections)

Week 11: Minjung and the Culture of Protests

 Abelmann, Nancy. Echoes of the past, epics of dissent: A South Korean social movement.
Univ of California Press, 1996. (Selections)

Week 12: Museums and Memory

 Yoneyama, Lisa. "Memory matters: Hiroshima's Korean atom bomb memorial and the
politics of ethnicity." Public Culture 7.3 (1995): 499-527.

Week 13: Korean Evangelicalism

 Lee, Timothy S. Born Again: Evangelicalism in Korea. University of Hawaii Press, 2010.
(Selections)

Week 14: Final Exam