Speech and K-dramas: The image and the soundtrack as an apparatus in the discursivization of emotions and infamous subjects

Abstract

This article presents a segment of an ongoing study on the discursivization of infamous subjects in South Korean television productions (K-dramas), considering their entry into the sphere of international entertainment through the strategic configuration of the musical-cinematographic apparatus. This apparatus encompasses the regulation of image and sound in film and television productions to enunciate emotions, forms of knowledge, and subject positions. Grounded in the theoretical and methodological orientations of Foucauldian Discourse Studies, articulated with Deleuze’s (2017) concept of the visible and the sayable, the analysis focuses on enunciative sequences composed of scenes from the drama Doctor John. The narrative proposes an intersection between medical and legal instances, delineating positions at the margins of the discursive order, governed by distinct regimes of truth. The study is based on the hypothesis that the history of infamy and the feelings associated with it are constantly updated through such filmic productions, and it pursues the objective of mapping how discourse on infamy and the emotions related to it are articulated through image and sound. It is argued that the regime that brings infamy into visibility is not given a priori but rather is open to description through the organization of the visible stratum, which enunciates subjects, forms of knowledge, and power within a historical moment that mobilizes distinct and particularized modes of addressing contemporary emotions.