Debates about ‘A Good Wife and Wise Mother’ and Tradition in Colonial Korea

Abstract

Above all, the enlightened intellectuals of Joseon during the end of Joseon and the early colonial period emphasized the necessity of female education for the development of the country. It was urged that being educated women and good wives and wise mothers, women should display their abilities as members of the country and the people. This was common to both colonialists and nationalists. It was because they were conscious of the country and the people based on the theory of Western modern civilization. The education for a good wife and wise mother was a common denominator constituting the political theory of the ‘nation’ of Joseon and the ‘Empire’ of Japan running in an opposite direction. However, the group of new-style women born through female education didn’t always meet their demand. Here, the advocates of the theory of a good wife and wise mother counterattacked the criticism of new women. The new women who opposed patriarchy and expressed sexuality openly were awkward beings unsuitable to the authority of the colonial state and the intellectuals of colonial Joseon. Developing a counter theory against the criticism about a good wife and wise mother and producing a new target called ‘new women,’ they responded one another antagonistically. At the same time, the discourse on a good wife and wise mother went through a new process of transformation. It was because it was reproduced as a traditional image of maternity rather than a new image of womanhood. After all, the discourse on ‘new women’ during the colonial period assumed a complicated dual character while it gave a blow to the theory of a good wife and wise mother on the one hand and eventually carried out the function to reproduce it in the form of tradition on the other hand.