20세기 초, 구습(舊習) 혼인 비판과 여성 담론의 형성 − 조혼 문제를 중심으로 −

Abstract

A decade of the 1900s was a relatively short period, but it was a time when characteristic public opinion was formed under the banner of improving custom. The customs of the past have become the subject of reform or abolition amid the task of protecting the nation and the country from Japanese imperialism. This article aims to clarify the logic of criticism on tradition and clarify characteristics of knowledge through early marriage, the very center of the dispute under the name of ‘conventional marriage.’ This also focuses on what meanings this criticism on ‘conventional marriage’ left for women discourses in that marriage discourses incorporated awareness and issues of women. First of all, I paid attention to how the marriage ideology of the early 20th century was the same and different from that of traditional society. They were the same in that they put the main meaning of marriage on biological production, but the social role they expected of marriage was different. In other words, modern marriages meant national prosperity while traditional marriages meant family prosperity. Secondly, I examined whether the harmful effects of early marriage were reflection of actual facts or merely were modern discourses. The problems of early marriage presented at that time were physical, intellectual, moral and economic training, all of which were based on whether they were of ‘civilization’ or not and the standard of that civilization was the Western marriage custom. The theory of the harmful effects of early marriage proved that there was excessiveness, such as being described as controlling the fate of the race and the nation in an era when the reconstruction of marriages by nationalism was requested. Finally, I noted that women's problems have become visible by the achievements left behind by criticism of early marriages, such as the sexual problems of women, exploitation of women, and changes in family discourse which were not pointed out in the context of ‘conventional marriage.’ This article examines changes of early marriage discourse over time and the historical context of early marriage through cultural specificity and gender conditions.