This study examines how the concept of ‘Korean woman’ underwent a radical transformation in Korea’s public discourse during the years of Japanese colonialism. Theodore Jun Yoo shows that as women moved out of traditional spheres to occupy new positions outside the home, they encountered the pervasive control of the colonial state, which sought to impose modernity on them. While some Korean women conformed to the dictates of colonial hegemony, others took deliberate pains to distinguish between what was ‘modern’ (e.g., Western outfits) and thus legitimate, and what was ‘Japanese, ‘ and thus illegitimate. Yoo argues that what made the experience of these women unique was the dual confrontation with modernity itself and with Japan as a colonial power.
Daftar Isi
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Women in Chosen Korea
Chapter 2. The ‘New Woman’ and the Politics of Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Colonial Korea
Chapter 3. The Female Worker: From Home to the Factory
Chapter 4. Discoursing in Numbers: The Female Worker and the Politics of Gender
Chapter 5. The Colonized Body: Korean Women’s Sexuality and Health
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Tentang Penulis
Theodore Jun Yoo is Associate Professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.