The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910-1945 / Edition 1

by Theodore Jun Yoo

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520252882
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/04/2008
Series:	Asia Pacific Modern , #3
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Theodore Jun Yoo is Associate Professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

Yoo’s book is characterized by solid scholarship and compelling historical detail. . . . The result is a richly detailed, engaging, and theoretically elegant examination of gender ideology in colonial Korea. It will prove a valuable resource to those with research and teaching interests in Asia, gender, and colonialism. It is accessible enough to be used in the undergraduate classroom and sophisticated enough to be incorporated into graduate seminars.

American Journal of Sociology

A pleasure to read and accessible to the non-specialist . . . There is no single book that presents so much information on this aspect of Korean history and does it so well.

American Historical Review

Very useful . . . Engaging.

Asian Journal of Women’s Studies

A valuable stepping stone toward the discourse analysis of gender issues in the colonial historiography, and will provide a good source for classes on colonial modernity or colonial gender politics.

Korean Studies

Few books on Korean history bring to life the complexity as well as the vitality of their subject as does The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea.

Korean Quarterly

Very useful . . . Engaging.

Asian Journal of Women’s Studies