Abstract

This study examines the affective dynamics of BL drama fandom through a feminist cultural criticism framework, focusing on the narrative formation of Semantic Error (2022), a Korean drama that gained mainstream popularity in the wake of the 2018 “Tal-BL” (Leaving BL) discourse in Korea. The affect surrounding Semantic Error emerged primarily in online spaces and was closely tied to practices of intense emotional immersion. While the drama’s success has often been attributed to its status as a “safe fantasy, ” this study situates such interpretations within the broader historical context shaped by the Tal-BL discourse. The adaptation of Semantic Error—which removed the original novel’s explicit sexual content and was reproduced as a ‘suitable-for-age-12’ drama—prompted conflicting explanations regarding its widespread appeal. Yet when attention is directed to the phenomenon of “ over-immersion affect, ” it becomes evident that the drama’s affective force operates beyond the boundaries of the “safe fantasy.” To analyze the cultural practices of Semantic Error’s fandom, this study proposes the concept of exmersion-affect, which highlights how affect is continually regenerated rather than simply delivered in a one-way narrative structure— from creator to reader/viewer—. Grounded in the new materialist feminist idea of entanglement, we argue that affect emerges through non-linear, ongoing relational processes rather than through a linear model of narrative transmission. By positioning Semantic Error within the tension between the Tal-BL discourse and the appeal of safe fantasy, this study diversifies the analytical frameworks of BL drama affect studies and suggests a non-linear, entangled understanding of text–audience relations through the lens of exmersion-affect.