Aspirational Cosmopolitanism: Gender and Korean TV Dramas in the Era of Developmentalism

Benjamin M. Han, “Aspirational Cosmopolitanism: Gender and Korean TV Dramas in the Era of Developmentalism,” Korean Journal of Communication 2. No. 1 (Spring 2025): 5-21, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/kjc.00007.

Abstract: Korean TV dramas began to garner global attention in the 1990s. Particularly, TV dramas popular in the era of developmentalism featured characters undergoing social class struggles. Social class tensions have been critical to Korea’s developmentalism, where the sacrifice of working-class female protagonists speaks to aspirational cosmopolitanism and the rise of the global middle class, as a by-product of modernization. Even though Korean TV dramas have been known for their melo- dramatic excess, often employing the formulaic Cinderella story, Star in My Heart (Byeoreun nae gaseume), which was broadcast in 1997, portrays the ambivalent experience of social struggles that the female protagonist endures while elevating her to a cosmopolitan subject (Kang, 1997). Engaging in a textual analysis of Star in My Heart as a case study, this article examines how the TV drama addresses gender relations during the era of developmentalism, as women use moral condemnation to cope with their inferior social identity and assert their morality against the corrupted affluent class.