Feminist themes in Hallyu 4.0 South Korean TV dramas as a reflection of a changing sociocultural landscape

ABSTRACT While contemporary South Korea is fairly westernized but represents a lag in the spheres of culture and politics, it is expected that the current Korean wave or Hallyu 4.0 – popular cultural content, diffused as of 2016 – are cumulatively signified by feminist themes, merged with more traditional Korean and East Asian cultural elements. Five representative Hallyu 4.0 dramas are examined here, based on cultural globalization theory (e.g., hybridization), along with a review of some earlier studies of Korean dramas and relevant strands of feminist scholarship. The findings suggest that much of the moderately modern elements found in earlier waves of Korean drama are still present, while liberal or neoliberal feminist elements are manifest in all five shows, although to different degrees. This ideological shift, in part, reflects recent sociocultural changes.