Korean Studies, vol. 21 (1997)

Contents

ARTICLES

From Subservience to Autonomy: Kim Wonju's "Awakening" by Yung-Hee Kim

The Story of Ch'oyong, a Parable of Literary Negotiation by David R. McCann

Female Employment and Elite Occupations in Korea: The Case of "Her Honor" the Judge by Linda S. Lewis

Strong State or Strong Society?: Educational Development in South Korea by Michael J. Seth

The Rise of Western Medicine and Revival of Traditional Medicine in Korea: A Brief History by Gil Soo Han

BOOK REVIEWS, pp. 122-160

Kim Wonju (1896-1971), better known by her pen name, Iryop (One Leaf), was one of the most outspoken and controversial feminist writers of modern Korea. This study presents a brief biography of Kim up to the time she became a Buddhist nun in the early 1930s, situating her life in the ideological, literary, cultural, and even political settings of her time. It then critically analyzes the structure, narrative strategies, and ideological implications of Kim's short story "Chagak" (Awakening, 1926), attempting to ascertain the story's place in the context of the time and in the author's development as a feminist writer.

The Story of Ch'oyong, from the thirteenth-century compilation of myths, legends, histories, and songs known as the Samguk yusa (Remnants of the Three Kingdoms), has attracted a great deal of attention in Korean scholarly circles. Much of the interest in the story has a nationalist flavor, in the sense that it is drawn to explain the seemingly passive behavior of the story's central character, the son of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, when he confronts a rather unpleasant scene upon returning to his home in the Shilla capital, Kyongju. How can a culture hero such as Ch'oyong behave in what seems to be a weak and indecisive way, the scholars ask. Most of the explanations ignore the admittedly obscure female character in the story, the beautiful woman who is Ch'oyong's wife. The present article pursues the question of what happens when the identity of the woman is considered a central rather than peripheral element in the story.

This article examines the employment patterns of women with law degrees, and the career experiences of those who succeed in entering the legal profession. It reveals that structural factors account for the rising number of female jurists, rather than any apparent changes in gender ideology in Korean society as a whole. Most notably, the government's expansion of the size of the field has benefited women, while at the same time aspects of the profession's structure, such as the gender-blind entrance examination and a seniority-based promotion system, have made the law increasingly attractive to career-oriented women. Further, the concentration of female legal professionals on the bench and their conspicuous absence in prosecutors' offices, suggests that traditional patriarchal attitudes about the proper role of women continue to dominate in the workplace, and that the increasingly equal access of the late 1980s has not necessarily assured equal opportunities for women in the 1990s.

South Korea is often portrayed as an authoritarian state that has directed the nation's social and economic development. So well does it fit models of a "strong state" and "developmental state" that there has been a tendency to overlook the importance of broader social forces--what may be termed the "public sphere"--in shaping the course of the nation's development. Yet a close examination of the formulation and implementation of educational policies during the early months of the military government in 1961 and the First Five-Year Development Plan in 1962-66 reveals that the South Korean state failed repeatedly to coordinate educational expansion with developmental needs as a result of opposition from a public eager to gain access to power, privilege, and prestige through higher education.

Hanbang herbal medicine, originally from China but indigenized in Korea, began to lose its significance on the introduction of Western medicine to Korea over a century ago. The trend continued during the Japanese colonial period (1910-45) and the early period of economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s. However, hanbang began to regain its significance as affluence increased during the 1980s. This study attempts to explain this resurgence of hanbang medicine and continuing growth of Western biomedicine by exploring the links between both types of medicine and the rapid industrialization of Korean society.