Leiden University Student Repository

Vries, Maaike De (2014)

Kyongsong Scandal's Women: Between Free Love and Patriarchal Nationalism

Bachelor thesis | Koreastudies (BA)

Colonial period Seoul has become the backdrop for a growing number of popular dramas and movies since the mid 2000s. Kyŏngsŏng Scandal (KBS 2007) stands out for the two strong female lead characters. It is these two women, one an apparently frivolous and fashionable kisaeng the other a rather stern bookshop keeper cum night school teacher and their evolving relationship(s) throughout the series that drive the story. These two women juxtapose colonial-period modern girls with new women, or at least their representation. Beyond this historical representation, I am particularly interested in how 21st century gender concerns inform these two characters as the series unfolds and their personalities are more and more developed. In doing so, this study relates to gender, visual culture and representation, and Korean colonial history. I rely in particular on Judith Butler’s (2006) theory of the cultural construction of gender and gender performativity, and how she develops the notions of...Show moreColonial period Seoul has become the backdrop for a growing number of popular dramas and movies since the mid 2000s. Kyŏngsŏng Scandal (KBS 2007) stands out for the two strong female lead characters. It is these two women, one an apparently frivolous and fashionable kisaeng the other a rather stern bookshop keeper cum night school teacher and their evolving relationship(s) throughout the series that drive the story. These two women juxtapose colonial-period modern girls with new women, or at least their representation. Beyond this historical representation, I am particularly interested in how 21st century gender concerns inform these two characters as the series unfolds and their personalities are more and more developed. In doing so, this study relates to gender, visual culture and representation, and Korean colonial history. I rely in particular on Judith Butler’s (2006) theory of the cultural construction of gender and gender performativity, and how she develops the notions of the gaze, the subject, and its object —the way we watch and how others perceive us. John Berger (Ways of Seeing, 1982) and Laura Mulvey (1975) show how Butler’s theories are in turn applicable to visual culture. Particularly Mulvey’s elaboration on the pleasure of looking and the shifting gender positions of female spectators as developed in her influential “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” informs my analysis of Kyŏngsŏng Scandal’s narrative and the representation of modern girls and new women in relation to the Korean female spectator and her (gender) position in South Korean society. I use Kenneth Wells and Kyeong-Hee Choi’s contributions to Shin and Robinson’s (1999) Colonial Modernity in Korea, as well as Korean historical research 매채로 본 근대 여성 풍속사 신여성 (New Women: The history of manners and customs of modern women visible in media, 2005) and the recently published compilation of translated articles from the colonial era magazine for women Shin Yŏsŏng (Hyaeweol Choi 2012) to situate the New Woman/Modern Girl discussion in its historical context. Nancy Abelmann (2003) and Youna Kim’s (2005) works inform my discussion of the situation of women in contemporary Korea.Show less

Author

Vries, Maaike De

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Korea Studies

Supervisors

Ceuster, Koen de

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en