The role of hegemonic masculinity and Hollywood in the New Korea

Abstract

We argue that during the 1940s Hollywood films had an important role to play in the

creation of a postwar South Korean society based on the new global U.S. hegemony.

The connections between political and economic change in South Korea and sociocultural

factors have hitherto scarcely been explored and, in this context, we argue

that one of the key socio-cultural mechanisms that supported and even drove social

change in the immediate post-war period was the Korean film industry and its representation

of masculinity. The groundbreaking work of Antonio Gramsci on

hegemony is drawn on – in particular, his understanding of the relationship between

“commonsense” and “good sense” – as well as Raewyn Connell’s concept of

hegemonic masculinity. The character of Rick in the 1941 Hollywood classic

Casablanca is used to illustrate the kind of hegemonic masculinity favoured by the

U.S. Occupation authorities in moulding cultural and political attitudes in the new

Korea.