K-Drama and Lessons in Hope
K-Drama and Lessons in Hope
Cynthia Comacchio
Cynthia Comacchio served as a professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University for 40 years before retiring in 2022. She has struggled with persistent, low-level, anhedonic depression since adolescence. This essay explores, not entirely tongue in cheek, a recent addition to her list of self-comforting coping strategies—television dramas from South Korea, popularly known as K-drama.
Learning Objectives
After reading this essay, you should be able to:
- Describe the author’s lived experience with depression.
- Outline the author’s connection between hope and despair.
- Discuss how the author’s discovery of the K-drama genre affected her experience of depression.
Before You Read
Reflect on and answer the following questions before you read this essay.
- How do you define “depression”?
- How do you think hope is related to depression? Or is it?
- Do you think a work of art can influence a person’s mental health?
Content Warning: This essay discusses depression and suicide.
definition
the inability to feel pleasure, often a symptom of depression
ironic, facetious, insincere, jokingly
