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.
Theodore Jun Yoo is Associate Professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
"Thorough and thoughtful.Yoo's densely researched history, filled with compelling stories, makes an important intervention in the field of gender and colonialism."—Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois
328 pp.6 x 9Illus: 8 b/w photographs, 4 tables
9780520252882$85.00|£71.00Hardcover
Mar 2008