The History of Modern Korea

Transcription

1 The History of Modern Korea Ewha Summer School June 22-July 19, 2015 Room: (To Be announced) Time: Mon. Thurs. 9:00 to 11:30 Professor Michael Robinson Office Hours: (to be announced) This is a course focused on the historical experience of modern Korea. The major themes of the course focus on the transformation of Korea from an agrarian, bureaucratic/aristocratic society into two, dynamic, authoritarian, industrialized and, in the case of post 1987 South Korea, democratizing, states. We will trace the Korean response to the influx of Western political power in Asia after 1840 and examine the effects of the intrusion of capitalism and imperialism on the Korean peninsula at the end of the 19 th century. Since 1900, intellectual, political, social, and economic change in Korea has been extraordinarily rapid. In succession, Koreans have had to endure and respond to a forty year colonial intrusion of Japanese power, a re-occupation after 1945 by the U.S. and Soviet Union, a catastrophic civil war, and the lingering effects of political division. How the modern Korean state and society has evolved as a response to these changes and forces will be our central concern. We will have to consider how the traditional legacy affected the emerging blend of old and new that shaped modern Korea. In doing so, we will better be able to understand the unique shape of contemporary Korea s social/political order and its place in the emerging world order of the 21 st century. Korea s 20th century has spawned a number of contesting historical narratives; we will actively evaluate these different views of the past while we explore the intersection between history and politics. In doing so we will develop our own sense of what it means to be historically minded. Course Goals 1. Recall and evaluate main events and causal themes in the narrative of modern Korea. 2. Understand and empathize with fundamental values, social dynamics, and political institutions in Korea and compare and contrast them with students home cultures. 3. Recognize and create reasonable answers to broad historical questions. Course Texts and Lectures Michael Robinson, Korea s Twentieth Century Odyssey: A Short History, University of Hawaii Press, Separate Readings in Course Book Available at Copy Center While there will be at times traditional lectures, the class will be more focused on discussion and other in class activities involving student interaction with each other and the instructor. Accordingly your readings are the lectures and foundational material for the course. Students 1

2 will be expected to have read the scheduled readings before the first class meeting of the week. In class writing exercises and quizzes will be based on this reading. Course Activities We will be doing a number of things in class that will support learning about Korean history and your evolution as a historical thinker. Having a historical consciousness means being able to see events in context and to be able to infer some sense of causality from a chain of events. There is no one historical truth to be discovered, rather there are relative truths, often multiple causes/reasons for any event, and conflicting narratives to evaluate. Historical mindedness helps us understand our lives as lived within the cultural, political, social, and economic matrices of our complex global order. The activities in the course will help foster historical thinking. In this case we will be using the complex narrative of Korea s 20th century experience as the grist for our discussions. We will be doing short writing exercises in class in response to something we have read. Most weeks here will also be short/paragraph length essays that you will do out of class and submit for class discussion. Finally there will be short quizzes, a mid-term essay exam, and a final writing project that will provide alternate opportunities to work on your writing skills. Assignments Quizzes: there will be two (2) quizzes during the semester. These are designed to assess your comprehension of the readings. Quizzes will require short answers. Sometimes they will ask for identification and significance of a historical personage, event, issue, even a date. These will be straight forward mostly fact based exercises. Mid-Term Exam: The Week of July 7-11 there will be an in-class essay exam. I will be handing out an exam preparation sheet that will give specific advice on areas of the reading and discussion that will be examined as well as how I want you to organize your essay responses. (One Hour Exam) Final Exam: The final Exam will be similar to the mid-term exam (just one hour). It will cover material covered after the mid-term exam. Daily Participation/attendance punctuality 25% Quizzes 30% Mid-Term Examination 20% Final Exam 20% Course Policies Attendance You might note that assignment weights in this class significantly reward those who come to class and come prepared. I expect you to attend each class meeting and to come a) on time, b) 2

3 having read the assigned material, c) having prepared any required assignments, d) with the appropriate book in hand, and e) ready to participate in discussion or group work with your peers. I will do the same. If absent, you are still responsible for the material and NEVER ASK THE QUESTION: DID I MISS ANTHING IMPORTANT IN CLASS LAST TIME? Academic Honesty Your work should be your own. Plagiarism constitutes using others ideas, words, or images without properly giving credit to those sources. There will be no use of electronic dictionaries or computers for quizzes or exams. I will follow Ewha policy for plagiarism or cheating on an assignment, which can include a grade of F for the assignment in question and/or for the course and a report to the Dean of Students Office. Please note university policy does not distinguish between intentional and unintentional misconduct. Course Topics and Reading Schedule 1. June 22: Course and Student Introductions and Discussion of Major Themes in Modern Korean History Reading: Korea s 20 th Century Odyssey (hereafter Odyssey) Introduction, Questions: Having read this introduction, what themes do you think are missing and why? 2. June 23: Korea s 19 th Century Crisis and Late 19 th Century Response Reading: Odyssey, Chap. 1 The New Century and an End of an Era 8-35; Questions: In general terms characterize the Chosŏn Court s response to the so-called 19 th century crisis. What does Palais mean by representing the Chosŏn political system as an equilibrium system? 3. June 27: The Korean Enlightenment and Collapse of the Acien Régime Reading: 02Schmid 1-54 Questions: What feelings (good and bad) were aroused amongst Koreans by the discovery of the Kwanggaet o stele? What role did newspapers play in Korea in regard to: nationalism, global thought, and political mobilization? 4. June 28: A Unique Colonialism? The First Decade of Japanese Rule in Korea and Social/Political Mobilization Reading: Odyssey, Chap. 2 Colonial State and Society

4 Questions: Can you compare and contrast different Colonialisms? From this reading can you induce what the major continuities are between different colonial systems? How did social mobilization create a more politicized Korea? Fist Quiz 5. June 29 : The Cultural Policy, Nationalist Politics, and Japanese Hegemony Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 3 Class and Nation in Colonial Korea, Questions: Ideologically speaking what ideas served to unify Korean nationalists and what ideas or assumptions tended to enervate nationalist unity? How did the domination of men within the Korean nationalist movement stifle feminism in colonial Korea? 6. June 30: Colonial Modernity: Social and Economic Change and Korean Society Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 4 Colonial Modernity, Assimilation, and War, Eckert Class Over Nation, Questions: Where do you stand on the debate about the evolution of modernity in colonial Korea? Was modernity solely a Japanese construct, or did Koreans have some agency in its making? Was Kim Sŏngsu a collaborator? 7. July 4: Forced Assimilation, Mobilization, and the Colonial Legacy in Modern Korea Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 4 Colonial Modernity, Assimilation, and War, Kajiyama Clan Records. Questions: What was the fundamental principle upon which the Japanese grounded the idea of cultural assimilation? And to what key components of culture did they want Korean to assimilate. How did the patriarch of the Sŏl family solve the dilemma he faced by being compelled to change the family name as portrayed in the Clan Records? 8. July 5: Review Session (first hour of Class) Mid-Term Examination. (Begin Reading for July 8) 9. July 6: Liberation, Occupation, Division, and Civil War ( ) Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 5, Liberation, Civil War, and Division, Questions: Who is responsible for the division of Korea? Was the Korean War a 4

5 Civil war? 10. July 7: North Korea: Nation Building, Consolidating Kim s Control and Leader Cult Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 7, Going it Alone: The DPRK 1953-the present, Questions: In its first twenty years North Korea moved rapidly to rebuild after the war and then to create an impressive industrial economy. What were the basic elements that helped North Korea move faster than the South in the 1950s and 1960s? By 1980 it was clear that North Korea s economy was in severe trouble. Why did this happen after being successful in earlier periods? What are the fundamental elements of the cult of the leader in North Korea and how does Chuch e ideology fit into the picture? 11. July 11: The First Republic ( : Crucible of Authoritarian Rule Reading: 07Robinson Sasanggye and 1950s Korea Questions: What was the origin of the National Security Law and Emergency Measures so oft used by Syngman Rhee? Why did the Second Republic fail? Why did the ROK economy stagnate between ? 12. July 12: Military Coup, National Security and Economic Development in the ROK Reading: Odyssey, Ch. 6, Political and Econ. Development in the ROK ( ) Questions: What were the fundamental policies behind the Economic Miracle in the ROK ? How did Park Chung Hee legitimate authoritarian politics during the Third and Four Republics? Second Quiz 13. July 13: The Politics of Protest: The Minjung Movement and the 1980s Reading: 09Nam Hee Lee Making of Minjung. 14. July 14: North Korea after 1990: Economic Failure, Famine, and Dynastic Succession Reading: Odyssey, pp ; 12Haggard and Nolan, Origins of the Great Famine. Questions: Why did the DPRK economy fail after the collapse of the Int l 5

6 Socialist System? What were the root causes of the great famine? 15. July 18: Rising Affluence in the ROK and the New Consumer Society: the 1990s Reading: 13Nelson Measured Excess Questions: What social and political debates revolved around the idea of over-consumption (kwasobi). What does this debate tell us about the evolution of modern Korean identity formation? 16. July 19: The Rise of Korean Popular Culture and the Hallyu (The 2000s) Reading: Reading Suspended Optional: Epstein, Girls Generation Questions: Is the Hallyu a concrete phenomenon or just a figment of Korean wishful thinking about their place in global culture? Final Exam Second Hour of Class: 6