Author: Hyaeweol Choi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2020
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From the publisher’s website:
Hyaeweol Choi examines the formation of modern gender relations in Korea from a transnational perspective. Diverging from a conventional understanding of ‘secularization’ as a defining feature of modernity, Choi argues that Protestant Christianity, introduced to Korea in the late nineteenth century, was crucial in shaping modern gender ideology, reforming domestic practices and claiming new space for women in the public sphere. In Korea, Japanese colonial power – and with it, Japanese representations of modernity – was confronted with the dominant cultural and material power of Europe and the US, which was reflected in Korean attitudes. One of the key agents in conveying ideas of “Western modernity” in Korea was globally connected Christianity, especially US-led Protestant missionary organizations. By placing gender and religion at the center of the analysis, Choi shows that the development of modern gender relations was rooted in the transnational experience of Koreans and not in a simple nexus of the colonizer and the colonized.
- Considers the influence of multiple cultures in shaping modern gender relations in Korea
- Illustrates how Protestant global networks played a significant role in shaping gendered modernity
- Demonstrates colonial and postcolonial roots of gender norms and practices in modern Korea
Hyaeweol Choi is a scholar of gender history. She is the C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley Family and Korea Foundation Chair in Korean Studies at the University of Iowa.
Contents
Introduction
1. Ideology: ‘Wise mother, good wife’
2. Materiality: the experience of modern house and home
3. Crossing: selfhood, nation, and the world
4. Labor: searching for rural modernity
Conclusion.