Women Pre-Scripted

Abstract

Women Pre-Scripted uses newspapers and magazines, between the 1896 and 1934, and literary works published up to 1942, as case studies to discuss the progress and consequences of prescriptive reading and writing that targeted Korean women at the dawn of Korea’s modern era. Through articles on a range of women’s issues, the book explores the subject and genre of the articles; script chosen and used; mode of representing women’s issues; categorization and definition of “women’s issues”; authors and editorial authority of the publication; and how these dimensions converge or conflict with nationalism, colonialism, and modernity. For Korean elites, construction of the “modern woman” was one of the central tasks in Korea’s modernization, made urgent by the convergence of Korean tradition and imperialist, capitalist influences from Japan and the West. At different times between 1896 and 1934, “woman” transforms from virgin savior to mother of the nation to manager of a modern family life and finally, to the embodiment of the capitalist West, fully armed with sexuality and glamour. By identifying and dissecting various agendas and agents behind the scene, this book exposes the polyvalent power mechanisms at work in the making of modern, national, and colonial Korean literature.

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