Department of English

The KPop group BTS is often dismissed in the Western music industry as being simplistic or catering too much to their fanbase. However, they’ve incorporated several intricate levels to their artistry since their debut, the most prominent being the creation of the Bangtan Universe, the fictional storyline that accompanied much of BTS’s discography and is an intricate tale of coming-of-age. In 2016, BTS released their fourth studio album, WINGS, which alluded to several Western works; the most prominent was Hermann Hesse’s bildungsroman, Demian. Although the group confirmed that the album was directly referencing Hesse’s work, they never confirmed what the references meant or how they tied into the Bangtan Universe. Several scholars have analyzed the allusions scattered throughout the WINGS content, and numerous fans have come up with their own theories over the decade. However, there is no official scholarship that explains the WINGS narrative in the context of BTS’s mainstream narrative. In this thesis, I analyze the short films, music videos, and the teaser trailer that accompanied the music album to argue that WINGS is a reimagined, non-linear version of Demian that underscores the darker aspects of youth and self-actualization. Furthermore, I argue that Jin represents Sinclair, and the other six boys are subconscious manifestations that help him come into adulthood, just as Demian did for Sinclair. In the larger conversation, I argue that BTS offers a new understanding of what it means to have a coming-of-age, and encourages a general audience to reconsider how intricate KPop is.