Graduate School of Humanities Department of History and Geography Asian History Field Korean History Speciality (Credit 1) Intended Year: Intended School:

Modern Korean History (Seminar II)B Modern Korean History (Seminar II)B Sub Title　 RYU Chung-hee

Numbering Code: Course Code: 2026 FallTerm weekly Thu3 Ito Classroom M/J科目 (日本語, 韓国語)

Course Overview

This course examines the question of modernity in East Asia, with particular attention to the modernity of Korea (present-day South and North Korea). Korean modernity was shaped through the historical experience of Japanese colonial rule, and understanding this process is essential for considering contemporary relations between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. These historical dynamics have also influenced East Asia as a whole, including China, as well as its relations with Western countries such as the United States. What kind of space was the Korean Peninsula from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century? How was it perceived by those who lived through that era? This course approaches these questions by focusing on people’s everyday lives, value systems, and the discourses of intellectuals. By examining colonial Korea through the eyes of contemporaries, students will explore the broader problem of modernity in East Asia. The course places particular emphasis on the “Cultural Rule” period (1920s) in colonial Korea. In the aftermath of the First World War, the global order entered a period of reorganization, and independence movements spread across the colonies of imperial powers. In Korea, the March First Independence Movement of 1919 led to harsh suppression, drawing severe criticism from the international community toward Japan’s colonial rule. Thereafter, Japan proclaimed a shift in colonial governance under the banner of the “extension of the metropole,” announcing a transition from the military-backed rule of the 1910s to the so-called “Cultural Rule” of the 1920s. Drawing on the writings and records of Korean intellectuals who lived during the Cultural Rule period, this course examines the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of colonial Korea from the perspective of the colonized. Through close readings of textual and visual sources, students will develop their own perspectives on Korean modernity within East Asia, as well as on the nature of Japanese modernity.

Last updated

: 2026/4/6 (15:50)