Missionary Zeal in a Transformed Melodrama: Gendered Evangelicalism in Korea

Abstract

Feminist scholarship has argued that women, as the subordinated gender, had a different experience in their evangelical endeavor and in the western imperialist enterprise. In this article, I examine the nature and effect of gendered missionary discourse from Korea, specifically focusing on the writings of a woman missionary, Annic Adams Baird, who served in the Korea mission from 1891 to 1916. I use the term “gendered missionary discourse” to refer to verbal representation used to shape reality and portray indigenous people. I further claim that the discourse is gender-bound, i.e., can be distinguished on the basis of the gender of missionary writers. I argue first that Baird's missionary discourse complies with the linear worldview that Christian civilization is the ultimate one. At the same time, Baird was critical of and resistant to the overbearing attitudes of westerners toward natives and their cultures. This seemingly balanced viewpoint may be partly attributed to her marginal position as a woman. However, in the final analysis, her discourse is more in line with the overall framework of the missionary desire to convert “pagans” to Christianity. Second, I suggest that Baird maximized the effect of her discourse by adopting a highly individualized and personal approach to Koreans. In addition, she used the plot of a “transformed melodrama,” in which stereotypical “pagan” characters displayed extreme cruelty, violence, manipulation, and, finally, Christian virtue rescued innocent victims from paganism. Finally, Baird's narrative representation of Korea is de-politicized, in comparison to the writings of her male missionary counterparts. This period, just prior to the Japanese annexation of Korea, was one of great volatility and political upheaval. Ironically, Baird uses the metaphor of “daybreak” to talk about the transformation of Korea through Christianity at a time when Korea was heading into the dark era of Japanese colonial rule.