References to American culture inflect the opening episode of Hwang Dong-Hyuk’s Squid Game (2021). The contestants wear tracksuits reminiscent of Adidas’ trademark style. The jazzy tune of “Fly Me to…
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Contemporaries Essays, The Hallyu Project
Contemporaries Essays, The Hallyu Project
Squid Games, Transcultural Fan Parodies: Black and Queer Adaptations
The mega-hit Netflix series, Squid Game, has led to hundreds of parody and response videos on YouTube and TikTok. For instance, one of the most popular parody videos, “$456,000 Squid…
Contemporaries Essays, The Hallyu Project
K-Crossover, or, Crying Over Marbles
The unexpected success of the Netflix-financed serial Squid Game in September 2021, written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Hwang Dong-Hyuk, undoubtedly confirmed a rising interest in hallyu. While Squid…
Contemporaries Essays, The Hallyu Project
Cultural Specificity, Hybridity, and Transnationality in Squid Game
Netflix’s original series Squid Game emerged as one of the most discussed TV series in 2021, generating 1.65 billion hours of viewing in 28 days after its release on September…
Contemporaries Essays, The Hallyu Project
The Hallyu Project: Introduction
Consider: Parasite’s historic Best-Picture Oscar win; Squid Game’s still-unrivaled Netflix triumph; the globally chart-topping tracks of BTS and Blackpink; and the recent addition of 26 new Korean words to the…
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
From Vault to Humbling Void: David Berman’s Attention Ecosystem
In a long-lost Fader interview that resurfaced the day after David Berman’s death, Nick Weidenfeld levels charges of solipsism and lack of empathy that he defines as “an inability to…
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
Postscript
David Berman is the only poet I’ve ever known. He didn’t call himself one. He didn’t dabble in poetry. He didn’t try to impress people with his poetry. When I…
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
David Berman’s Edge Cities: Poetry, Commercial Real Estate, Municipal Feeling
In Roe Ethridge’s cover photograph for David Berman’s book of poems Actual Air (1999), two glass office towers rise over a row of pines (fig. 1). Below, a dry and…
Contemporaries Essays, David Berman
Think of Me as a Place: David Berman’s Rooms in Time
In “Snow,” the opening poem of David Berman’s first and only collection Actual Air, the speaker walks through a winter scene with his younger brother: I pointed to a place…