Chapter Ten Race, Imperialism and Reconstructing Selves: Late Nineteenth-Century Korea in European Travel Literature

Abstract

This chapter focuses on European discourses on Korea during the second half of the nineteenth century, is a case study in exploring how Europeans have typically understood and viewed Korea and its people. It traces how race and imperialism influenced European constructions of Korea in relation to the power politics the country had to face. The chapter explores the influence that travelers' accounts had in forming European views of Korea. Written from a Korean perspective, it offers an alternative lens through which European attitudes can be examined and sheds light on just how unaware Europeans were of their own biases. At the end of the nineteenth century Korea became the target of European and Japanese expansionism. Just as Europeans often had contradictory opinions about the Korean people and their civilization, the response of Koreans after their encounters with Western people and their civilization was also dichotomous. Keywords:European travel literature; imperialism; Japanese expansionism; Koreans; racial cliches