Colonial Modernity in Korea. Edited by Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Harvard East Asian Monographs: 184/Harvard-Hallym Series on Korean Studies, xiii, 466 pp. $49.50 (cloth).

Abstract

The 12 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 labour, 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.