Meritocracy and Aesthetic Domination: A Reflection on the Modes of Subjectivization in K-Capitalist Realism

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the mechanisms of domination of Korean society in terms of cultural subjectivization and aesthetics. Domination is produced and reproduced in the field of aesthetics and morality. For example, appearance and taste are important dimensions in which “merit” is externalized, and they immediately define the relationship between subjects and subjects. erefore, they become the main territory of meritocracy. In this article, I discussed how lifestyle, appearance, fashion, and taste are characteristic aspects of subjectication. I have also argued the new interplay of wealth and power, and mentioned aspects of domination related to lifestyle, such as the Korean Wave and luxury culture. The another purpose of this article is to discuss ways to overcome this subjective, aesthetic, and cultural domination. I paid attention to the contradictory workings of resistance or ‘artistic autonomy’ from below, and argued that the only way to do so is to promote a ‘subjectivization’ dierent from middle-class ideology.