This course is a cultural history course in which the organisation and activities of the people on the Korean peninsula are approached from the point of view of various beliefs and practices concerning gender. The Korean experience is perhaps ideal for a study of this kind, since from traditional times its society had been organised according to a cosmic, explicit doctrine of gender.
The course begins with consideration of the chief issues that have been raised in writings on gender history, including whether there is a virtually universal pattern of female subordination in traditional societies and beyond, distinctions between biology, politics and culture, prescriptions of sexuality, the relation between gender and class, and the relations of gender to colonialism and nationalism.
This is followed by consideration of traditional gender relations in Korea on the basis of a variety of materials, including literature, and the alleged transformation of gender relations between the Koryo and Chosen dynasties. The main focus of the course, however, will be placed on the 20th century, where we will deal specifically with the question of gender in relation to invasion, colonial rule, nationalism movements and modernisation.

Tutorials (presentation and participation) 20%; Essay 40%; and Final exam 40%.

6 University courses (36 units)

Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi (eds), Dangerous Women : Gender and Korean Nationalism, 1998;
Martina Deuchler, The Confucian transformation of Korea, 1992
Nicholson, Linda J., Gender and History, Columbia University Press, 1986