Ming Chu Chen

Korean TV dramas, motherhood and mothering, narrative theor y, Su Hyeon Kim

This study anal yzes the subject of motherhood and mothering in South Korean female
script writer Su Hyeon Kim’s 3 family dramas. How Kim created the characters of
mother, how she raised female issues from those characters, and what ma ternal
thoughts three dramas brought up under patriarchal society are discussed. The
purposes of this study are to understand how Kim narrated female voices between
traditional and young generations, and how maternal discourse was represented by
characters , plots, and dialogues. Chatman’s narrative theory as a method is used. This
study focuses on the actants and events of mother and discusses gender cultural
implication in those TV dramas and female subjectivity under Kim’s writing. It is
found that mother is signified as a function of help and problem solving; moreover,
Kim’s dramas is toward s a narrative of maternal feminism by mothering strikes,
vacations, and female body autonomy.