From the publisher’s website: This volume brings together translated essays by fourteen established and emerging South Korean scholars. Using approaches from sociology, political science, history, and literary and cultural studies, the authors offer innovative and nuanced analyses of a wide range of topics—from refugee displacement to street politics, from anti-communism and democracy to militarization—and discuss … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 69)
Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan: Elite Graffiti in Premodern Korea
North Korea’s Kŭmgangsan is one of Asia’s most celebrated sacred mountain ranges, comparable in fame to Mount Tai in China and Mount Fuji in Japan. Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan marks a paradigm shift in the research about East Asian mountains by introducing an entirely new field: autographic rock graffiti. The book details how late Chosŏn (ca. 1600–1900 … [Read More]
Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America
From the publisher’s website: Mary Paik Lee left her native country in 1905, traveling with her parents as a political refugee after Japan imposed control over Korea. Her father worked in the sugar plantations of Hawaii briefly before taking his family to California. They shared the poverty-stricken existence endured by thousands of Asian immigrants in … [Read More]
Korean Mask Dance Dramas: Their History and Structural Principles
From the publisher’s website: The Korean mask dramas have been performed by professional or non-professional players from among the common people over a long time. To correctly understand the mask dramas, both historical investigation through research materials and folkloristic investigation through field study are necessary. The author, an initiate of Bukcheongsaja-nori, a representative Korean mask … [Read More]
Perspectives on Korean Dance
From the publisher’s website: The first comprehensive English language study of Korean dance. Winner of the Congress on Research in Dance’s (CORD) Outstanding Publication Award (2003) From palace to village street to international stage, Korean dance is a vibrant and complex art comprised of many different forms. In Perspectives on Korean Dance, Judy Van Zile … [Read More]
Korean P’ansori Singing Tradition: Development, Authenticity, and Performance History
In 2003, the Korean singing tradition of p’ansori joined the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a distinctive honor bestowed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. P’ansori is a music genre—an oral tradition comprising arias and narratives. Often the individual singer acts out the story of young and old, … [Read More]
Fugitive Dreams – Poems by Sowol Kim
From the publisher’s website: With the appearance of this English translation, Western readers will for the first time be able to appreciate the poetry of Korea’s most revered and popular modern poet. Born at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sowol Kim was the first poet to introduce the Korean vernacular into poetry. His verse … [Read More]
Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media
From the publisher’s website: Collectively known as Hallyu, Korean music, television programs, films, online games, and comics enjoy global popularity, thanks to new communication technologies. In recent years, Korean popular culture has also become the subject of academic inquiry. Whereas the Hallyu’s impact on Korea’s national image and domestic economy, as well as on transnational cultural … [Read More]
Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: A History of Christianity and Politics
From the publisher’s website: A well-documented work on the history of modern Korea focusing on the history of Christianity in relation to politics. “This book is a clear and concise survey of the events and issues regarding the relationship of church and state in modern Korea. The author takes a historical approach in describing the … [Read More]
The Great Synthesis of Wang Yangming Neo-Confucianism in Korea: The Chonon (Testament) by Chong Chedu (Hagok)
From the publisher’s website: Translated, edited, and introduced by Edward Y. J. Chung, The Great Synthesis of Wang Yangming Neo-Confucianism in Korea: The Chonŏn (Testament) by Chŏng Chedu (Hagok), is the first study in a Western language of Chŏng Chedu (Hagok, 1649–1736) and Korean Wang Yangming Neo-Confucianism. Hagok was an eminent philosopher who established the unorthodox Yangming school … [Read More]
Chong Yagyong: Korea’s Challenge to Orthodox Neo-Confucianism
From the publisher’s website: Describes the historical background and philosophy of the reform-minded, eighteenth-century Korean thinker, Chong Yagyong. During the last decade, Chong Yagyong, also known as Tasan, the eighteenth-century Korean thinker who dared attack the hallowed orthodoxy of his dynasty, has become a household name in Korea. In this study, the first ever in … [Read More]
Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese Comfort Women
From the publisher’s website: In the wake of the wartime experience of sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific War (1930-45), Korean survivors lived under great pressure not to speak about what had happened to them. These sexual slaves were known as “comfort women,” and this book brings us into the lives of … [Read More]
Letters from Joseon: 19th Century Korea Through the Eyes of an American Ambassador’s Wife
From the publisher’s website: John Mahelm Berry Sill’s role as the American Minister to Korea (1894-1897) is one of controversy. He has been described as weak, ineffective, and reluctant by some and as independent, proactive, and alert by others, depending on the researcher. He served during an extremely turbulent period of Korean history, a span … [Read More]
Korea’s Ancient Koguryŏ Kingdom: A Socio-Political History
From the publisher’s website: Originating from a series of papers written by Prof. Noh Tae-don over two decades of research, Korea’s Ancient Koguryŏ Kingdom: A Socio-Political History concentrates on the political and social aspects of what was the largest of the Proto-Korean nation-states (37 BCE to 668 CE) that finally succumbed to subversion and invasion thirteen centuries … [Read More]
A History of Korean Christianity
With a third of South Koreans now identifying themselves as Christian, Christian churches play an increasingly prominent role in the social and political events of the Korean peninsula. Sebastian C. H. Kim and Kirsteen Kim’s comprehensive and timely history of different Christian denominations in Korea includes surveys of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions as … [Read More]
Gender Politics at Home and Abroad: Protestant Modernity in Colonial-Era Korea
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 … [Read More]