Korean Studies, vol. 22 (1998)

Contents

ARTICLES

The State of North Korean Studies: A Critical Appraisal by B. C. Koh

The Second Society in North Korea by Jae Jean Suh

Making Colonial Policies in Korea: The Factory Law Debate, Peace Preservation Law, and Land Reform Laws in the Interwar Years by Soon Won Park

Playful Reconstruction of Gender in P'ansori Storytelling by Chan E. Park

Composition Errors as an Index of Korean American Language Student Fluency Levels by Kyung-Ja Park Hahn

BOOK REVIEWS, pp. 106-154

While it cannot be denied that the current academic literature on North Korea is rapidly growing, current studies in the field can still be defined by a number of weaknesses. This paper argues that six such weaknesses can be found: (1) a paucity of theoretical and comparative studies, (2) an overall lack of methodological rigor, (3) logistical constraints on data, (4) a lamentable shortage of trained specialists, (5) various political constraints and a strong ideological bias, and (6) the generally noncumulative nature of the literature. The concluding section ponders the implications and effects of these points on future research.

Despite the quantity of literature on North Korea currently available, the quality has not been very satisfactory. A major reason for this is that North Korean studies in South Korea have been and continue to be dominated by political scientists, whose research suffers from serious theoretical, ideological, and methodological biases--anticommunist sentiment, the myth of North Korean particularism, the totalitarian assumption, and elitist biases. Studies of North Korea require more potent tools of analysis capable of accounting for the sort of visible and dynamic change likely to accompany that nation's current economic deterioration. This study presents such an alternative approach, drawing on recent interviews with defectors and on content analysis of North Korean novels to build a comparative sociological account that argues there is a widening gap between official state ideals and the realities of daily life in that society. Illuminating those features that conflict with and deviate from the endorsed ideals, it shows how these are not unique to North Korea, but rather general features of socialist states as a whole.

The conventional view of a powerless colonial Korean labor force oppressed by an authoritative and exploitative Japan has recently come under critical attack by newer studies seeking to reexamine the social dynamics that existed among different colonial groups. This study is in the latter camp, focusing on the Factory Law debate that took place in Korea between the two world wars (1921–1936) to argue that Japanese colonial policies were not always authoritative and arbitrary. Rather, any legislation resulted from a complex decisionmaking process forced by a need to balance the interests of different leaders, shifting policy priorities in Japan, and local pressures.

This article explores how gender shift occurs in p'ansori, especially with a female storyteller: in the style of narration, in the timbre and inflection of the voice, between characters from the story, and between the roles of a narrator and a performer. Understanding the sociohistorical conditions that helped bear and nurture the vocal art of p'ansori is crucial to an understanding of how singers handle the process of cross-gender vocalization, particularly with Korea's strict Neo-Confucian heritage that emphasizes segregation of masculinity and femininity. The role of gender is also examined within the stories of the p'ansori, especially how their portrayal fits with the modern feminist view that women in p'ansori are sexual objects performing before the dominant male audience. Finally, this study discusses the performative identity that women singers of p'ansori have constructed upon the already complex stage gender shaped by male singers of the past era.

This paper attempts to discuss and categorize the types of errors made by Korean American students in an advanced Korean composition class at the University of Hawai`i in order to provide some additional criteria for distinguishing between proficient and less proficient learners of Korean. Current issues in Korean honorifics are also reviewed in order to examine the strategies learners tend to use in composition. The position taken is that proficiency can be defined in terms of both linguistic and communicative competence. It follows then that knowledge of what constitutes this competence becomes crucial, requiring some examination and criticism of existing guidelines for measuring it. Observation, analysis, and discussion of the student data lead to the tentative conclusion that interspeaker familiarity and sensitivity to pragmatic and sociolinguistic variables of Korean appear to be essential in producing smooth and natural Korean-language prose.