근대계몽기 지식, 여성, 글쓰기의 관계

Abstract

This thesis intends to explore how ‘knowledge of women’ and ‘knowledge desired by women’ were formulated in different ways within a newly forming knowledge system in the Modern Period of Enlightenment. This exploration is helpful to understand the relationship that exists among knowledge,women, and writing in the period. ‘Knowledge of women’ in the Modern Period of Enlightenment is considered to be classified into three categories. First is ‘a basic, elementary level knowledge’ which was provided to women by educational institutions. Second is the reading and writing ability of ‘Korean and Chinese characters’provided by textbooks written for women. Last is ‘home economics’ as introduced by formal education. This thesis shows three interpretations of women’s knowledge. First of all,women in the period learned modern knowledge, such as arithmetic, natural sciences, geography, Korean, and history, through a basic, elementary level knowledge and they began to find themselves as modern people. Moreover,the contents of Korean and Chinese character literacy in the textbooks for women suggest that only Hangul is used for women’s writing, which is quite different from the traditional writing style of the time. Lastly, home economics was first introduced in the same period, but has been proved to have no close relation to women. Meanwhile, the knowledge pursued by women took the form of an ‘editorial’ in the Modern Period of Enlightenment. Contributions from female readers in newspapers greatly increased between 1907 and 1908, caused by the National Debt Repayment Movement. The writing seems including formal Chinese sentences and subjects aiming at enlightenment. However,editorials were written in a formal way and appeared in public media, such as newspapers, to deal with public issue for the country. The writing of women in the period indicates that their intellectual desire was aimed at the public sphere. The true meaning behind writing an ‘editorial’ can be examined regarding the situation of women in the period. This is because they could only acquire literacy rather than écriture, which was not a real knowledge but an inadequate knowledge. Though writing seems elementary and casual, it was their first attempt to express what they truly wanted to say to society as they learned modern basic knowledge and Korean and Chinese characters. It is also considered to be evident that women were ‘Ontology of the between’,which was outside of women’s knowledge formed by men in a modern dichotomous way.