근대 남성적 담론으로 본 신여성 무용가 최승희

Abstract

This study examines how Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi, the renowned "new woman" stage artist, developed her career in the male-centered process of modern- ization in Korea. Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi was one of the pioneers of modern dance in Korea. Also, she was one of the "new women" who appeared in the early part of the twentieth century as a result of the Western style of education. She, with her fame earned on the stages in Japan and the Western countries, successfully positioned herself in the social environment of Korea that was not friendly to social activities of women. In addition to her great talent in dance, Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi's instrument for her success was her strategy to utilize the rhetoric of the masculine dis- courses such as “wise mother, good wife" and cultural nationalism. "Wise mother, good wife" aimed at producing mother and wife who would be de- voted to managing her family in more Westernized, "modern" style breaking with traditional patriarchy. Cultural nationalism was a form of nationalism that was expressed in "cultural," non-political activities such as education and arts. As Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi applied the rhetoric of the discourses, which cooperated with male-centered modernization, for her social and artistic ac- tivities, she could earn male support and be more successful than any other women without such a strategy and male support. Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi maintained her social image clean describing her domestic life with the rhetoric based on "wise mother, good wife." At the same time, adopting the discourse of cultural nationalism, she tried to apply Korean elements in her dance based on Western style and make Korea join in "the world" through such a form of art. The male-centered society was enthusi- astic to her as her activities and her rhetoric were cooperative with the grand narrative of modernization, and Ch’oe Sŭng-hŭi became the most famous and successful woman in her time in Korea.