Loli Kim (University of Oxford).

Interpreting Korean Popular Culture: How to Perform Cross-Cultural Multimodal Analysis

Researching foreign popular culture places the scholar in the role of a multimodal translator, responsible for interpreting layered meanings through the limits of their own semiotic repertoire. This challenge intensifies when working across languages and cultures with significant structural and historical distance, such as Korean and English. Anglophone European researchers analysing Korean popular culture inevitably confront problems of untranslatability and invisibility. Because popular culture depends on multimodal literacy – understanding the multimodal orchestration of language and gesture according to the culture’s socio-pragmatic rules and situational contexts – proceeding without standard tools to culturally contextualise the researcher’s interpretation risks marginalisation and Eurocentric research. In this talk, I introduce K-SFDRS, a formal analytical framework designed to ground interpretation within Korean cultural logics. Drawing on examples from Korean films and television dramas, I demonstrate how this approach enables culturally situated, methodologically rigorous analysis of contemporary Korean popular culture.

Bio

Dr Loli Kim is an award-winning Koreanist whose research spans East and Southeast Asia. She holds a doctorate in East Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on the Leverhulme Trust–funded Sea, Song and Survival: The Language and Folklore of the Haenyeo Women. A multimodal scholar specialising in cross-cultural approaches to East Asian communication and discourse, she develops methodologies that support Anglophone scholars in moving beyond Eurocentric frameworks and more accurately representing East Asian creative and academic works and the voices they articulate. Dr Kim lectures on Korean Popular Culture during Trinity Terms at the University of Oxford, is Visiting Lecturer in Korean Studies at Oxford Brookes University, and is Lecturer in Film Production at the SAE Institute (London).

Sonia Dueñas (University Carlos III of Madrid)  

Transnational Connections in Contemporary South Korean Cinema

This session examines South Korean-European film relations through bilateral co-production agreements ratified since 2005. Contextualized by the Segyehwa plan, this era marked an unprecedented industrial expansion that integrated Korean cinema into the global market through innovative financing and production frameworks. A key driver was the Busan Promotion Plan (PPP), which shifted from regional partnerships with Japan and China to strategic alliances with North America and Europe.

While co-productions have been a European staple since the 1950s, South Korea has utilized this formula to penetrate high-impact markets, fostering institutional synergies and high-budget projects. Beyond economic goals, these strategies serve as a sophisticated "soft power" instrument. Despite the complexities of negotiating local identity against global demands, this collaborative process ensures the sustained visibility and expansion of Korean cinema through professional expertise exchange across emerging and established markets.

Bio

She holds a PhD in Media Research and is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She is a member of the research group ‘Television-Cinema: Memory, Representation and Industry’ (TECMERIN) and secretary of the University Institute of Spanish Cinema. Currently, she is a member of the projects "El documental institucional y el cine de aficionado coloniales: Análisis y usos" (PID2021-123567NB-I00) and “Cine y televisión en España en la era digital (2008-2022): nuevos agentes y espacios de intercambio en el panorama audiovisual” (PID2022-140102NB-I00). She was awarded the Korea Foundation Field Research Fellowship for a stay at the Korea National University of Arts. She received an Extraordinary Doctorate Award and her thesis, “Planet Hallyuwood: la industria cinematográfica de Corea del Sur en la era de la globalización”, with an International Mention, received the highest distinction (Summa Cum Laude). Additionally, she is the secretary and founding member of the Association of Korean Studies and Culture in Spain (ADECCE).

Funded by:

• Eurasia Foundation (from Asia)

In partnership with:

• Vicerectorat d’Internacionalització i Multilingüisme de la Universitat de València
• Departament de Teoria dels Llenguatges i Ciències de la Comunicació
• Institut Universitari de la Creativitat i Innovacions Educatives (IUCIE)
• Unitat d’Investigació Japón -Universitat de València (UIJ-UV)