KREN- 3120: Korean Horror Story

Course Description: Melancholic and Otherworldly: Horror in Modern Korea examines how horror narratives in literature and film reflect the cultural, political, and historical anxieties of modern Korea. The course explores the aesthetic, thematic, and symbolic dimensions of horror, situating these works within the contexts of Korea’s rapid modernization, colonial and postcolonial histories, and shifting social landscapes. Topics include the tension between tradition and modernity; anxieties surrounding industrialization and globalization; the lingering trauma of colonialism and war; shifting gender and family dynamics; and the global circulation of Asian horror. Students will engage with a range of texts—films, short stories, and essays— to analyze how horror both reflects and subverts systems of power and knowledge, giving form to voices long silenced, suppressed desires, collective resistance, and changing worldviews. This course approaches horror as a language for the unspeakable, a mode of resistance against entrenched hierarchies, and a mediation on what it means to be human, revealing how the genre preserves what dominant narratives attempt to marginalize or erase. No prior knowledge of Korean language, literature, or history is required. All readings and screenings will be provided in English translation or with English subtitles.