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Oct. 2021 VICTORIAN AND CONFUCIAN WOMANHOOD VIEWED BY WESTERN WOMEN MISSIONARIES ANNIE BAIRD, ELLASUE WAGNER, JEAN PERRY, AND LILLIAS UNDERWOOD BY EUN-HEE CHA A Thesis Submitted to the King’s College London For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religious Studies School of Art & Humanities King’s College London May 2018 i TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES……............................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................................vi ABSTRACT…... ....................................................................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1. The Female Missionary Authors, and their Historical and Theological Background .......................................................................................................................................................... 31 1.1 Historical and theological background ............................................................................................ 31 1.1.1 Western-centred ideology of ‘manifest destiny’ ................................................................. 31 1.1.2. The Female Missionaries and the Foreign Mission ........................................................... 33 1.1.3. Conservative theology in the late 19th and early 20th century .................................... 37 1.2. The female missionary authors .......................................................................................................... 42 1.2.1. Annie Baird .......................................................................................................................................... 43 1.2.2. Ellasue Wagner .................................................................................................................................. 46 1.2.3. Jean Perry ............................................................................................................................................. 48 1.2.4. Lillias Underwood ............................................................................................................................. 50 Chapter 2. The Ideals of Victorian and Confucian Womanhood in the Encounter between Western Women Missionaries and Korean Women ...................................................... 53 2.1. Western women missionaries’ female characters and the Victorian ideal of womanhood ......................................................................................................................................................... 55 2.2. Choson Korean women and the ideal of Confucian womanhood .................................... 61 2.3. The comparative status of women in Confucian and Victorian society .......................... 70 ii Chapter 3. The Mission Framework: ‘Woman’s Work for Woman’............................................. 75 3.1. Women’s Conversion: Transformed Choson Korean Women .............................................. 80 3.2. Korean Women and their Conversion in the Female Missionary Narratives ................ 84 3.2.1 Annie Baird and her Choson Korean Confucian women characters .......................... 85 3.2.2. Ellasue Wagner and her Choson Korean Confucian women characters ................. 92 3.2.3. Jean Perry and her Choson Korean Confucian women characters ......................... 102 3.2.4. Lillias Underwood and her Choson Korean Confucian women characters ......... 107 Chapter 4. Influences on the Social Standing of Korean Women ........................................... 113 4.1. The Impact of Western Women Missionaries and their Domestic Womanhood on the Role of Women ....................................................................................................................................... 114 4.2. The Impact of the Korean National Reform and Enlightenment Movement on the Role of Women ............................................................................................................................................... 120 4.3. Economic Impacts on the Status of Confucian Women ...................................................... 125 4.3.1. Confucian Choson women and their right to property ............................................... 130 4.3.2. Choson Korean women’s leading role in finance and their contribution to evangelical work ......................................................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 5. The Women in the Narratives and Novels .................................................................. 137 5.1. Gendered Missionary Contrasts: Missionary Wife as Victorian Lady ............................. 139 5.2. Strong Korean Women ....................................................................................................................... 148 5.3. The Non-converted Converter: Female Missionaries and Gender Inequality ............ 155 5.4. Fighting For but not With Korean Women ............................................................................... 162 5.5. Yangban women as possible models for equality and women’s rights in Choson? ................................................................................................................................................................................ 167 Chapter 6. ‘Unaltered’ Women Missionaries? ................................................................................... 171 6.1. Personal Challenges in the Mission Field ................................................................................... 171 6.2. New Experiences - Beyond the Victorian Ideal ........................................................................ 177 iii 6.3. Western Female Missionaries and their Personal Transformation .................................. 179 6.3.1. Annie Baird ....................................................................................................................................... 179 6.3.2. Ellasue Wagner ............................................................................................................................... 187 6.3.3. Jean Perry .......................................................................................................................................... 193 6.3.4. Lillias Underwood .......................................................................................................................... 201 Conclusion and Outlook ............................................................................................................................. 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................. 224 iv LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1 AN EXAMPLE OF JA NEYEO GYUN BUN SANG SOK JE IN THE FAMILY OF „YANGBAN‟ GWON DONGBO ................................................................... ………. 133 TABLE 2 THE NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF HO 戶 BY CASTE (CLASS)..163 TABLE 3 THE NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF POPULATION BY CASTE…. 164 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 THE NEW RATIO CONCERNING FLOOD AND DROUGHT IN CHOSON, BASED ON THE ANNALS OF THE CHOSON DYNASTY................................... 27 Figure 2 THE CONSUMER PRICE AND FLUCTUATION IN PRICE OF RICE PLANTS (KOREA STAPLE FOOD) ........................................................................