일제강점기 조선의 「신여성」에 관한 담론 형성

Abstract

The discourse on the “New Woman” in Chosun, developed from the 1920s onwards, was introduced in public through a series of women’s magazines published around this period, in particular, the Sin Yosong (新女性: New Woman). The term “New Woman” generally indicated a woman who had received a modern education provided by officially accredited educational institutions for women, and then its meaning and usage evolved, after the Japanese annexation and ensuing occupation of Korea, to indicate a woman who was in opposition to the traditional “Old Woman.” These “New Women” were willing to challenge the feudalistic, male- dominated patriarchal system and to actively participate in the women’s liberation movement, by promoting women’s rights and gender equality. This new definition also resulted in a change in the discourse on the concept of what it was to be a woman to emerge naturally in this period, that is, the image of the woman who fought to uphold freedom, equality, and free love, as opposed to that of the traditional hyonmoyangcho (good wife), whom society expected to look after her in-laws and remain subservient to her husband. However, the mainstream view and subsequent appraisal of “New Women” was, for the most part, negative or critical: they were ignored by the very modernity instrumental in forming their own consciousness, whose once-glorious times they had long strived to relish to the fullest. Hence, it can be said that for “New Women,” their great desire for, and concerns about, modernity have been left unresolved.