Gender and Writing in Premodern Korea

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course investigates the relationship between gender and writing in premodern Korean culture. We will examine how gender was constituted in and through writing by considering issues such as the politics of vernacular script, the act of writing as embodiment, social status and the boundaries of literary expression, and the formation of a canon of elite women writers. Readings include courtesan and palace ladies’ literature, autobiographies, travel records, domestic handbooks, and other texts. We will engage critical theories of authorship, materiality, and the archive to explore the core question of what it means to speak of categories such as “women’s writing” or “women writers” in the context of premodern Korea.