Leiden University Student Repository

Barkas, Chloe (2024)

Korean-ness and Kinship in Return to Seoul: Transnational Adoptees, and the Politics of Being “Korean Enough”

Bachelor thesis | Koreastudies (BA)

As Korea has globalized, so too has its discourse surrounding Korean transnational adoptees. Globalization of the issue can be seen in media portrayal of this group, where their canon of portrayal in Korean film and television is now accompanied by non-Korean works of visual media. Through a case study of Return to Seoul, a 2022 film by non-adoptee, non-Korean director Davy Chou, the thesis argues the following. While Return to Seoul as an independent foreign film on transnational Korean adoptees is in some capacity aware of Korea’s national wound and discourse, it is not meant to fit into existing Korean representations or answer to political incentives. Conversely, it is exactly through its divergence from existing portrayals that foreign film on the topic has the potential to resonate with its global audience, and create productive discourse on Korean-ness and foreign-ness.

Korean-ness

identity

transnational adoption

discourse analysis

Korean cinema

Author

Barkas, Chloe

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Tilland, B.R.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en