@article{ART003310494},
author={Sunah Kim},
title={Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2026},
volume={32},
number={1},
pages={137-162},
doi={10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004}
TY - JOUR
AU - Sunah Kim
TI - Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2026
VL - 32
IS - 1
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 137
EP - 162
SN - 1738-3188
AB - This article analyzes how K-thriller narratives have shifted from character-centered stories driven by individual psychology and choice to data-driven narratives structured around the accumulation, circulation, and tracking of information. Within this transformation, digital apparatuses such as smartphones, surveillance cameras, and streaming platforms no longer operate as supplementary narrative elements but function as forms of affective power that guide audiences’ tension and determine the course of events.
In recent K-thrillers, the causes and consequences of crime are shaped less by personal intention or moral judgment than by the recording, exposure, and potential dissemination of data, through which characters are reconfigured as dividuals composed of fragmented informational traces. This study conceptualizes this shift as a transition from the human domain of perception to an algorithmic domain governed by digital machines, examining how machine vision precedes human perception and judgment in organizing narrative logic. Through analyses of films such as Following, Unlocked, and Streaming, this article argues that digital images function as projectiles that transmit and amplify tension and anxiety as affective devices.
By situating digital apparatuses as technologies of affective governance, this article proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing how operative images and machine vision reorganize narrative form and audiences’ viewing experience in contemporary K-thrillers, thereby contributing to the analysis of anxiety, tension, and control in contemporary digital visual culture.
KW - K-thriller;machine vision;digital apparatuses;affective politics;projectile affect;dividual. data-driven narrative
DO - 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
ER -
Sunah Kim. (2026). Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre. Journal of Popular Narrative, 32(1), 137-162.
Sunah Kim. 2026, "Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.32, no.1 pp.137-162. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim "Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre" Journal of Popular Narrative 32.1 pp.137-162 (2026) : 137.
Sunah Kim. Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre. 2026; 32(1), 137-162. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim. "Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre" Journal of Popular Narrative 32, no.1 (2026) : 137-162.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim. Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre. Journal of Popular Narrative, 32(1), 137-162. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim. Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2026; 32(1) 137-162. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim. Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre. 2026; 32(1), 137-162. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
Sunah Kim. "Digital Apparatuses of Affective Power in the K-Thriller Genre" Journal of Popular Narrative 32, no.1 (2026) : 137-162.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.1.004
