KREN-3113: Korean Buddhist Cinema and Literature

Course Description: A War of Memories: Politics and Poetics of War Memories in Modern Korea,” takes an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the study of literature and film that explore key war events in Korea during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through a comparative lens, we will analyze cultural artifacts as sites of memory and investigate the political dimensions of “remembering” and “forgetting,” engaging critically about how those negotiations influence the politics, collective identities, and transnational relations within the East Asian region.

The course is structured into a survey of four historical topics that illuminate the challenges inherent in “correctly” remembering and “accurately” representing the past: i) the Jeju 4.3 incident; ii) the comfort women issue; iii) Korean War prisoners of war; and iv) Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Each topic will be introduced through a mix of feature films, documentary films, and literature that reflect the construction and interpretation of individual and collective memories.

Korean language proficiency and knowledge of Korean history and culture are not required.