KJCKorea
Journal Central

This paper examines the phenomenon of occult capitalism underlying real estate narratives in Korean literature following the COVID-19 pandemic. The term “real estate fiction” here is not limited to stories of speculative housing acquisition and sales, but broadly encompasses various assetization practices, including cryptocurrency speculation. Focusing on characters who embody a speculative sensibility, this study explores shifts in perception that encompass affect and ethics toward others. In post-pandemic real estate fiction, characters abandon capital accumulation through labor and instead engage in speculative ventures grounded in occult-like beliefs and assetization. The premodern gambler figure is reimagined as a new subject seeking survival strategies in the abstract world of financial capitalism. Economic deprivation and precarious conditions of life lead to a reconfiguration of ethical relations with others. As identification with the middle class persists, the intersection of deprivation and meritocratic ideology intensifies resentment and hostility toward neighbors. Within this affective politics and invisible ethical struggle, the structural issues of real estate are erased. The violence implicit in this system extends to the body, culminating in what this paper calls "gore real estate"—a space where even bodily harm or death becomes subsumed into the logic of assetization. This transformation marks a key feature of Korean-style occult capitalism, where the incomprehensible mechanisms of capital accumulation give rise to cold, affectless forms of violence. Ultimately, this paper investigates how, under financial capitalism, bodies become increasingly abstracted, and systemic violence operates more intricately through internalized sensory experiences. By doing so, it critically engages with the reconfiguration of affective and ethical terrains surrounding the body and life itself, under the totalizing logic of assetization.

This paper aims to examine the transformation of residential environments and the desires of Korean society in the 1990s through the representation of apartment complexes in television dramas. Since the 1990s, the so-called “myth of invincible real estate” has played a pivotal role in shaping the life goals of Koreans, establishing homeownership as a primary objective in life. Consequently, the acquisition of an apartment has become integral to defining the life cycle of the Korean people. Apartments, as commodities that encapsulate the Korean society’s collective desire for real estate, have exerted far-reaching influence not only on residential life but also on the overall structure of modern Korean society, contributing to the formation of contemporary lifestyles.* This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea.(NRF-2022S1A5B5A17049595) Focusing on this aspect, this study explores how Korean television dramas of the 1990s represented large-scale apartment complexes as ‘landscapes’ reflecting the social desire for real estate. Hierarchically structured apartment complexes visualized shifting perceptions regarding real estate and urban redevelopment during this period. Viewers experienced a sense of illusionary identification with the residents of these complexes, enabling them to internalize middle-class aspirations. Furthermore, the boundary of the apartment complex metaphorically captured generational transitions within Korean society, where older and younger generations coexisted. Through the spatial reorganization of residential areas, these large-scale apartment complexes became experimental sites for reconfiguring the norms of Korean society. They served as arenas for transforming perceptions of community and home life, thereby reshaping modern lifestyles. Through this process, apartments came to function as critical sites of public control, offering viewers a means to internalize social order and discipline. The widespread adoption of apartment housing warrants further attention, particularly in light of the fact that the experience of having one's own room from childhood has been closely linked to the individualized memories and cultural tastes of younger generations. Since the 2000s, as the younger generation has cultivated a fragmented sense of home and family—symbolized by studio apartments and single-person households—the discourse surrounding apartments demands both synchronic and diachronic analysis to fully grasp its cultural implications.

This paper discusses the representation of apartments in popular culture in relation to the concept of women’s crime. This term encompasses both crimes committed against women and those committed by women. In doing so, it examines the cultural sociology of female crime within apartment settings from a diachronic perspective, spanning from the 1980s to the present. The analysis focuses how the apartment, and the moral ideal of “freedom,” are connected to crimes involving women—either as victims or perpetrators—and identify how such crimes reflect the desires and tensions of their respective eras. The analysis focuses Madame Aema (1982) and Flower of the Equator (1983), which explore sexual liberation through apartment living and taboo relationships; A Dog Day Afternoon (1995), which dramatizes women’s resistance to gender-based violence; Catching Up with Gangnam Moms (2007), which addresses class mobility and maternal ambitions for educational success; and The Great Bang Ok-sook (2019–2020) and Lethal to Those Without Real Estate (2024), which focus on female crime in relation to real estate. In analyzing these texts, this discusses the forms of freedom that apartment dwellers pursue—sexual freedom, freedom from violence, and economic freedom—and examine how women’s crimes are portrayed in the process.In line with the time periods in which these works were produced, this paper will also consider how they reflect or challenge dominant discourses of patriarchy, misogyny, and the capitalist order. These narratives will be linked to the broader anxieties of their times, as embodied by female characters who are caught between investment and speculation, and between the roles of criminal and victim, all within the symbolic and material framework of the modern apartment.