The Representation of Symbolic Violence Endured by the Female Characters in Korean Drama Strong Woman Do Bong

Abstract

Symbolic violence operates in several ways, family relationships and romantic relationships are no exception, as seen in the Korean drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Symbolic violence is not recognized by objects that can indicate verbal violence, psychological violence, and physical violence. This research discovers the symbolic violence inflicted on the female main character which in turn affects the character's psychological condition. This qualitative research used Roland Barthes' semiotic method with two stages of marking, namely denotative and connotative meaning. The semiotic method of Roland Barthes investigates the numerous kinds of language used to portray ideology in the society, particularly in media culture. The subject of this study is the Korean drama series Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, which was aired on JTBC in 2017 and had a run time of 60 minutes each episode. The primary data include plot, settings, characterizations, dialogues, and gestures, while the secondary data include literature or literary studies. The data analysis focuses on the elements that compose the meaning and the audiovisual text's denotation meaning, also known as syntagmatic analysis. It is then continued with a paradigmatic analysis, in which the two-stage analysis of Barthes' marking was conducted to look at the meaning of connotations.