London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

LKL book database logo

Sitings: Critical Approaches to Korean Geography

From the publisher’s website:

Arranged around a set of provocative themes, the essays in this volume engage in the discussion from various critical perspectives on Korean geography. Part One, “Geographies of the (Colonial) City,” focuses on Seoul during the Japanese colonial occupation from 1910–1945 and the lasting impact of that period on the construction of specific places in Seoul. In Part Two, “Geographies of the (Imagined) Village,” the authors delve into the implications for the conceptions of the village of recent economic and industrial development. In this context, they examine both constructed space, such as the Korean Folk Village, and rural villages that were physically transformed through the processes of rapid modernization. The essays in “Geographies of Religion” (Part Three) reveal how religious sites are historically and environmentally contested as well as the high degree of mobility exhibited by sites themselves. Similarly, places that exist at the margins are powerful loci for the negotiation of identity and aspects of cultural ideology. The final section, “Geographies of the Margin,” focuses on places that exist at the margins of Korean society.

Contents

  1. Introduction — Constructed Places, Contested Spaces: Critical Geographies and Korea | Timothy R. Tangherlini and Sallie Yea

Part 1. Geographies of the (Colonial) City

  1. Respatializing Chosôn’s Royal Capital: The Politics of Japanese Urban Reforms in Early Colonial Seoul, 1905–1919 | Todd A. Henry
  2. Demolishing Colony: The Demolition of the Old Government General Building of Chosôn | Jong-heon Jin

Part 2. Geographies of the (Imagined) Village

  1. Chosôn Memories: Spectatorship, Ideology, and the Korean Folk Village | Timothy R. Tangherlini
  2. Blame Walt Rostow: The Sacrifice of South Korea’s Natural Villages | David J. Nemeth

Part 3. Geographies of Religion

  1. Auspicious Places in a Mobile Landscape: Of Shamans, Shrines, and Dreams | Laurel Kendall
  2. Kyeryong Mountain as a Contested Place | Je-hun Ryu
  3. Kyôngju Namsan: Heterotopia, Place-Agency, and Historiographic Leverage | Robert Oppenheim

Part 4. Geographies of the Margin

  1. The Seoul Train Station Square and Homeless Shelters: Thoughts on Geographical History Regarding Welfare Citizenship | Jesook Song
  2. Cyberspace and a Space for Gays in South Korea | Michael J. Pettid
  3. Marginality, Transgression, and Transnational Identity Negotiations in Korea’s Kijich’on | Sallie Yea

Also available as an ebook from the Google Play store

External links:

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.