City Research Online

Abstract

Recently, South Korea has become one of the largest content providers for Netflix. We analyze the textual characteristics of five Netflix Originals K-dramas - Sweet Home (2020), My Name (2021), Squid Game (2021), Hellbound (2021), and All of Us Are Dead (2022) – to unfold the existing genre conventions and uniquely local factors in the context of transnational television. In the process of transnationalization, genres are continuously and simultaneously evolving in the directions of homogenization and heterogenization. Universal values such as humanism, altruism, and familyoriented solidarity, as expected in the existing genre conventions, were homogenizing factors. However, these homogenizing factors were accompanied by uniquely local, heterogenizing factors arising from traumatic collective memories, political and economic situations in South Korea. We also found that webtoons played a significant role in the transnationalization of the K-dramas genre. This study contributes to genre studies and transnational television research.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright © 2024, the authors. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article.
Publisher Keywords:	Netflix, genre, Korean drama, Netflix Original, transnationalization, SVOD (subscription video on demand)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DS Asia H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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