Synopses & Reviews
The twelve chapters in this volume seek to overcome the nationalist paradigm of Japanese repression and exploitation versus Korean resistance that has dominated the study of Korea's colonial period (1910-1945) by adopting a more inclusive, pluralistic approach that stresses the complex relations among colonialism, modernity, and nationalism. By addressing such diverse subjects as the colonial legal system, radio, telecommunications, the rural economy, and industrialization and the formation of industrial labor, one group of essays analyzes how various aspects of modernity emerged in the colonial context and how they were mobilized by the Japanese for colonial domination, with often unexpected results. A second group examines the development of various forms of identity from nation to gender to class, particularly how aspects of colonial modernity facilitated their formation through negotiation, contestation, and redefinition.
Review
Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson have edited a book that brings together academics from a range of disciplines to present a comprehensive perspective of Korea's colonial period from a more integrative and pluralist viewpoint
In taking on an alternative view of Korea's colonial period, the book provides a valuable addition to the Korean historical literature. The rationale is well argued and avoids disparaging previous work. Nationalist biases (both Korean and Japanese) are avoided and editors and contributors project a richness of perspective that allows for a reassessment of the importance of the colonial period in the development of the modern Korean state. David Pollard
About the Author
Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC; the founding director of the Korean Studies Program; senior fellow at FSI; and associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.Michael Robinson is Associate Professor of Korean History at Indiana University.Soon Won Park is a lecturer in Korean studies at Keio University in Tokyo.Daqing Yang is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University.
George Washington University
Table of Contents
Preface
Contributors
Introduction: Rethinking Colonial Korea
Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson
Part I: Colonial Modernity and Hegemony
1 Modernity, Legality, and Power in Korea Under Japanese Rule
Chulwoo Lee
2 Broadcasting, Cultural Hegemony, and Colonial Modernity in Korea, 1924-1945
Michael Robinson
3 Colonial Corporatism: The Rural Revitalization Campaign, 1932-1940
Gi-Wook Shin and Do-Hyun Han
4 The Limits of Cultural Rule: Internationalism and identity in Japanese Responses to Korean Rice
Michael A. Schneider
5 Colonial Industrial Growth and the Emergence of the Korean Working Class
Soon-Won Park
6 Colonial Korea in Japan's Imperial Telecommunications Network
Daaqing Yang
Part II: Colonial Modernity and Identity
7 The Price of Legitimacy: Women and the Kunuhoe Movement, 1927-1931
Kenneth M. Wells
8 Neither Colonial nor National: The Making of the 'New Woman' in Pan Wanso's 'Mother Stake 1"
Kyeong-Hee Choi
9 Interior Landscapes: Yi Kwangsu's The Heartless and the Origins of Modern Literature
Michael D. Shin
10 National identity and the Creation of the Category 'Peasant' in Colonial Korea
Joong-Seop Kim
11 Minjok as a Modern and Democratic Construct: sin Ch'aeho's Historiography
Henry H. Em
Epilogue: Exorcising Hegel's Ghosts: Toward a Pastnational Historiography of Korea
Carter J. Eckert
Reference Matter
Notes
Index