Leiden University Student Repository

Kagie, Mélissa (2022)

The Portrayal of the Socially Withdrawn Loner in Korean Dramas: Is this an accurate portrayal?

Bachelor thesis | Koreanstudies (BA)

The topic of Socially Withdrawn Loners (SWL) has seen a surge in coverage by South Korean media in the past few years. This coverage is not always accurate and many SWL express feeling stigmatized by society. This thesis explores how SWL are portrayed in Korean drama and if this portrayal coincides with academic literature on this topic. In order to research this, this thesis analyzed and compared four Korean dramas and with the literature as foundation, established a thematic understanding of SWL in dramas. It finds that SWL-characters are generally portrayed positively and sympathetically. Instead dramas are found to have the tendency to trivialize SWL and misrepresent the severity of it.

Social Withdrawal

Korean dramas

qualitative analysis

thematic analysis

hikikomori

representation

cultivation theory

Author

Kagie, Mélissa

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Green, C.K.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en