South Korean food and women in glocalization: a case study in the role of food media

This dissertation examines the ways in which food media—as publications, broadcasts, and blog postings and discussions with the theme of food—interact with Korean food culture and women’s understanding of their own lives. I analyze these relations within the framework of glocalization, which conceptualizes foreign and local influences as equal elements of change, and thus differs from a concept of globalization which might assume an unequal power relationship between Asia and the West. By analyzing the texts of a cookbook, baking blogs, and a television drama, I explore the relations between foreign and modern influences on traditional Korean food culture and the changing roles of women in the family and society from the 1990s to the 2010s. Through these case studies, I argue that food media reflect and concretize the meaning of traditional or national Korean food culture in its interaction with foreign and modern food cultures, domestic values of Korean women among different generations, and glamorized ideals of class culture and lifestyles. Using food media, Korean women discuss food culture and the lives of women, thereby allowing certain food media to become instructional texts and learning spaces. I argue that both food media and the Korean women who use food media negotiate, redefine, and educate Korean women about traditional and newer food culture, and a set of ideal roles for women.