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Article:
GANGNAM STYLE erklärt. Ein Beitrag zur deutsch-koreanischen Verständigung

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Abstract

GANGNAM STYLE is an ironic arts-fairy story originating from the desire of a needy hero (alias Psy) to conquer the famous ›Gangnam‹ (an extremely afflu-ent district in Seoul). Since the hero of the fairy story cannot afford a horse as opposed to the rich Gangnam people, he creates a horse-, or rather a horse rider-dance and thereby turns into a ›centaur‹. Despite this, his achievements are mediocre. He is even beaten at the execution of the dance he developed by a young, authentic Gangnam citizen who owns more than one horse in the shape of a Mercedes SLK with 184 ›horse‹ power. However, ›Unlucky Hans‹ finds his ›Empire‹ in the guise of a ›Subway Princess‹. His dream lady, whose virtues he propagates from the very beginning, corresponds to an everyday, common girl even by (South-)Korean standards and is in accordance with his own commitments: thorough work during the day and a ›switching‹ at night of the code of behavior to hedonism. The hero is satisfied with this romantic accomplishment without himself having become a genuine ›Gangnam‹ insid-er, that is for example, by securing as a bride the daughter of a millionaire. »Oppan Gangnam Style« initially functions as an imperative impulse of the hero. At the same time it is the leading principle of success in that society, in other words the mythical ›Big Brother‹, whom the hero tries to take advantage of by himself transforming into the role of ›Oppan‹, the competent ›older (big) brother‹, in order to court the young lady.

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Kiefer, Klaus H.: GANGNAM STYLE erklärt. Ein Beitrag zur deutsch-koreanischen Verständigung. In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Jg. 10 (2014), Nr. 1, S. 26-53.http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16529
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The item has been published with the following license: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz