The Cultural Politics of Transmedia Storytelling in K-Pop
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Description
Foregrounding the ways in which stories are created and circulated across media forms and cultures, this volume approaches K-pop as a narrative system rather than a discrete musical genre. Contributors demonstrate how transmedia storytelling functions as a central mechanism through which cultural politics of meaning, identity, and power are produced, managed, and contested.
An international and interdisciplinary roster of contributors employ case studies examining a number of artists including BTS, Taemin, Sunmi, and KARD, among others, with topics ranging from idol universes and solo projects to fandom labor and scandal. These varied cases demonstrate how questions of race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, and labor are embedded within the everyday mechanics of storytelling itself. The practices of transmedia world building around K-pop idols – through which both controversy and solidarity can shape discourses around idols and their careers – are re-understood as elements that can threaten to break the illusion of community.
Ultimately, this volume situates K-pop within broader debates about transmedia power, affective circulation, and global popular culture, highlighting how storytelling operates as a site of ongoing negotiation in which visibility, value, and belonging are continually reworked and redefined.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Transmedia Storytelling in K-Pop
Nicholas E. Miller (Independent Scholar, USA)
Part I Global Imaginaries and the Reframing of Culture
1. With(Out) Skin: Narrative Coherence and the Cross-Cultural Aesthetics of K-Pop Storytelling
Osarugue Otebele (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
2. From Suburbia to Seoul: Interrogating the Commodification of Korean Identity and Masculinity in BTS's “Dynamite”
Joseph T. Salazar (University of the Philippines, Philippines)
3. Glimpses into a Global Concept: Taemin, K-Pop, and the Christ Pose
Emily R. Marlow (University of Sheffield, UK)
4. From Suppression to Self-Expression: A Transformative Approach to Han in Sunmi's “Gashina”
Nayoung Bishoff (The George Washington University, USA)
Part II Transmedia Labors and the Poetics of Becoming
5. “We Dance Across This Line into a New World”: Transformative Horror in ENHYPEN's Vampire Universe
Sharon Becker (Towson University, USA)
6. A Delicate Balance: Fan Agency and Storytelling in BTS's HYYH Universe
Zeb Khalid (Independent Scholar, USA)
7. K-Pop Idol, Indie Artist, YouTuber, Farmer? Entangled Narratives, Public Image, and Kim Hyun Joong's Transmedia Storytelling
Patricia Cove (Dalhousie University, Canada)
8. “I'm a Different Type of Beast”: Hwasa's and Jessi's Transmedia Journeys of Unapologetic Self-Expression
Sara Taghvaeishahroodi and Fatemeh Salehivaziri (both University of Alberta, Canada)
Part III Queer Disruptions and the Aesthetics of Refusal
9. Pas Encore Vu: The Queer Narrative Techniques and Insular Storyworlds of TOMORROW X TOGETHER
Lillian Lu (University of California San Diego, USA)
10. Crude Forms, Queer Residues: KARD and the Sticky Politics of Embodied Storytelling
Nicholas E. Miller (Independent Scholar, USA)
11. “I Was Nothing Like Them Other Girls”: Transmedia Queer Poetics in Moon Byul's 6equence
Theo Gray (University of Alberta, Canada)
12. Unruly BIBI and the Noir Narratives of Lowlife Princess: Noir
Megha Solanki (Nirma University, India)
Editor and Contributors
Index
Product details
| Published | Sep 03 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 9798216278337 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 15 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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