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Between Words and Images: Gender and Cultural Productions in Colonial Korea

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Between Words and Images: Gender and Cultural Productions in Colonial Korea BETWEEN WORDS AND IMAGES: GENDER AND CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS IN COLONIAL KOREA JOOYEON RHEE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HUMANITIES YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO MAY 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-80579-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-80579-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondares ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract This dissertation investigates representations of women in popular works of fiction, photographs, and silent cinema produced between the mid-1900s and the late 1920s in colonial Korea. It considers these cultural productions as a site of ideological struggle between the colonized and the colonizer, within which gender was constructed and articulated to serve their political purposes. It explores underlying ideologies, production, circulation, and consumption of images of women as a way to comprehend broader impacts of colonialism and nationalism in a place where the concept of ideal womanhood was imposed and contested on many different levels. I examine specific social, political and technological contexts of selected texts wherein meanings of gender were constructed and scrutinize the interconnectedness between literary and visual materials as a way of comprehending a complex matrix of power relations embodied in the politics of representation . An investigation of the intertextuality of these representations, I argue, will enable us to identify multiple locations of power and widen our perspective on colonial culture where men and women articulated their identities through their active engagement in the cultural productions both as audience and producers. IV Table of Contents Acknowledgments vii List of Figures x Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Making Women Patriotic Citizens: Women in the New Novel (sinsosol1) during the Aeguk kyemong undong (Patriotic Enlightenment Movement) Period 1895-1910 Introduction 26 Newspapers and the Use of Han 'gul 30 The Concept of Literature and the New Novel 40 The Korean Joan of Arc: Chang Chiyon's Aeguk puinjon (The Story of a Patriotic Lady, 1906) 48 The Epic of an Orphan: Yi Injik's Hydl ui nu (Tears of Blood, 1906) 60 Conclusion 68 Chapter 2 A Melodramatic Turn: the Representation of Love and Marriage in Changhanmong (1913) Introduction 72 The Popularity ofKatei shosetsu (Domestic Novels) in Japan and Korea 76 The Concept of Love 85 Melodrama and Female Psychology 92 Morality, Gold, and Christianity 99 The Relationship between Female Sexuality and Patriarchy 110 Conclusion 119 Chapter 3 A Romantic Dimension of Freedom: The "New Woman" and the Politics of Storytelling Introduction 121 The Emergence and Reception of the "New Woman" in 1910s Japan 126 The Difficulty of Defining "New Woman" in Korea 131 11 have rendered Korean and Japanese names in the original order, surname first. I have followed the McCune-Reischauer system and the Hepburn system for Romanizing Korean and Japanese words and names respectively except in cases where convention dictates otherwise, such as Taisho and Showa, or when previously accepted forms of Romanization exist. V The Reception of the "New Woman" in Korea during the Cultural Nationalist Movement of the 1920s 137 "It's In Her Blood": The Image of a "New Woman," Kim Myongsun 146 The Politics of Confession: Kim Myongsun's short story, "T'ansiri wa Ch-yongi" 158 Conclusion 164 Chapter 4 The Gendered Colonial Landscape in Na Un'gyu's Films: Focusing on the Symbolism of Rape and Madness Introduction 167 Na Un'gyu and Korean Silent Cinema in the 1920s 171 Landscape in the Eyes of a Madman: Arirang (1926) 186 An Absent Mother and A Vengeful Father: Ferryboat without the Master (1932) 196 The Voice of the Film Narrator, Pyonsa, and Female Spectators 204 Conclusion 213 Chapter 5 Vision and Gender: Photographs and Postcards of Kisaeng Introduction 214 The Problem of Orientalism 217 A Social History of Kisaeng and the Control of Sexuality in Colonial Korea 222 The Production and Circulation of Kisaeng Photo-postcards 230 Narrating the Self: A Kisaeng Magazine, Changhan (A Long Suffering 1927) 248 Conclusion 256 Conclusion 259 Bibliography 276 VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was very fortunate to work with many wonderful people during the course of my graduate study in the Department of Humanities at York University. This dissertation would not have seen its completion without their guidance, encouragement, and friendship. I am deeply indebted to Professor Theresa Hyun for her ceaseless support and faith in me throughout the years. Her dedication to intellectual life has been a great inspiration, and I was privileged to receive her guidance on my academic life as well as on my personal life. From 'how to organize materials' to 'how to make hearty chicken noodle soup,' she has always responded to my countless demands with a generous and kind heart. I thank Professor Ted Goossen who listened to my ideas tirelessly and patiently over the years. I am particularly thankful for the numerous challenging issues and questions he raised, which motivated me to think beyond various boundaries. He is also a marvelous translator, and I thank him for teaching me to become a sensible and responsible translator myself. Professor Sharon Hayashi greatly helped me to maintain confidence in my project. I learned a lot from her about navigating theoretical and methodological issues, thus making my ideas communicable. Thanks to her attention to detail and intellectual insight I was able to approach my materials with clarity. I thank Professor Joan Judge who helped me bring pieces of my research ideas into the bigger picture and generously shared her knowledge and resources with me. She vii is an admirable researcher and a teacher who has shown me how to make meaningful connections between texts and images. It was always delightful and intellectually fulfilling to converse with her, and our conversations taught me to become an independent thinker. I took great advantage of the Illinois/Indiana Korean Dissertation Workshop on Korean Culture and Society where I received invaluable feedback from Professor Michael Robinson, Professor Nancy Abelmann, and Professor Shin-Kap Han. I thank them for sharing their time and knowledge, which enriched the content of my dissertation. I thank Professor Andre Schmid, Professor Hong Kal, and Professor Tom Cohen, whose scrupulous reading of my dissertation and suggestions for my further research will be crucial for me as I take my work beyond this stage. I owe them for their generosity in sharing their insights and knowledge with me. I have been lucky to get to know a number of scholars in the field who have shown great interest in my work and encouraged me to move forward. I thank Professor Janice Kim whose thoughtful comments on my work in its initial stage were essential to the building of a coherent structure for my dissertation. I thank Professor Watanabe Naoki for his friendship and support. Through him I was exposed to the scholarship on Korean study from a wider perspective. I am also grateful to Professor Kim Youngmin who gave me very useful comments on some parts of my dissertation. My dissertation project has benefited greatly from a Canada Graduate Scholarship of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, an Albert Chan viii Scholarship, and an Ontario International Education Opportunity Scholarship of Ontario, all of which generously supported my research. I am also grateful to the vibrant presence of the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) at York University where I had numerous opportunities to interact with great teachers, interesting students, and researchers. It was at YCAR that I met wonderful mentors and friends with whom I spent both meaningful and fun times during my academic journey. I thank the director of YCAR, Susan Henders, for giving me numerous opportunities to participate in various interesting projects. I was lucky to be around so many intellectually stimulating and fun-loving friends whose collegial support and companionship made my graduate study fulfilling and less isolated. I thank Alicia Filipowich, Naoko Ikeda, Inhye Kang, Sungjo Kim, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Eric Li, Rhoda Reyes, Nedra Rodrigo, Akiko Takesue, Doris Sung, and Mary Young for their caring hearts.
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