Colonial Modernity in Korea [Paperback]

Gi-Wook Shin (Editor), Michael Robinson (Editor), Ms.] Kyeong-Hee Choi (Contributor), Henry H. Em (Contributor), Do-Hyun Han (Contributor), Joong-Seop Kim (Contributor), Chulwoo Lee (Contributor), Soon-Won Park (Contributor), Michael A. Schneider (Contributor), Michael D. Shin (Contributor), Clark Sorensen (Contributor), Kenneth M. Wells (Contributor), Mr.] Daqing Yang (Contributor), Daqing Yang (Author), Kyeong-Hee Choi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0674005945 | ISBN-13: 978-0674005945

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 466 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674005945
• ISBN-13: 978-0674005945
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > History > Asia > Korea

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very progressive approach on the subject, April 21, 2006

By 

Tobias Lehmann (Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colonial Modernity in Korea (Paperback)

I really like to recommend this anthology to all history and Korean studies interested people. The authors address to a very contentious and emotional topic of modern Korean history: the period of Japanese colonialism from 1910-1945.

However, this book doesn't cover this old and long well-known history what you maybe could expect. Deeply understanding the master narrative about political and cultural suppression or suffering what Koreans still maintain and the path to modernity from the Japanese side authors like Gi-Wook Shin, Michael Robinson or Clark Sorensen or Kenneth Wells turn to issues of Korean modernity and colonialism that are usually not covered by historians.

Indeed they attempt to initiate another kind of historiography: topics of everyday life, peasants, media (newspaper), human rights movement (Paeckchong), literature and the reflection of modernity, telecommunications network, policy of assimilation, significance of the Korean Nation after liberation and so on.

These historians break new grounds in Korean history in that they examine a history from below (!) concerning movements, everyday life during colonization or the quest for modernization, i.e. usual people's participation (instead of the aristocratic Yangban) on modernity. Nevertheless, they aspire to maintain the holistic claim. These authors try to relate the mentioned issues with the big political ones and concrete policy and thus underscore how various kinds of history (like political, social, media or literature) could be interwoven.