The Making of Modern Subjects

This first extensive study of Korean female spectators in the early 20th-century reconceptualizes colonial Korean female spectators as diverse active agents with their own politics.

In the early 20th century, Korean women began to manifest themselves in the public sphere. Sung Un Gang explores how the women's gaze was reimagined in public discourse as they attended plays and movies, delving into the complex negotiation process surrounding women's public presence. In this first extensive study of Korean female spectators in the colonial era, he analyzes newspapers, magazines, fictions, and images, arguing that public discourse aimed to mold them into a male-driven and top-down modernization project. Through a meticulous examination of historical sources, this study reconceptualizes colonial Korean female spectators as diverse, active agents with their own politics who played a crucial role in shaping colonial publicness.

Autorentext

Sung Un Gang is a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Architecture and the Collaborative Research Centre 1265 'Re-Figuration of Spaces' at Technische Universität Berlin. He earned his doctoral degree in Theater and Media Studies from Universität zu Köln. His works focus on the intersections of social minority and space, postcolonial historiography of East Asia, and the Asian diaspora in Germany.