East Asian Studies 217 - MODERNITY & TRADITIONS-KOREA

Reinventing tradition for political and cultural legitimacy is an integral part of the forward thrust of modernity itself. In the case of colonial Korea (1910-45), historical writings built the modern state of the Japanese empire at the same time as they formed the spiritual, ethnic nation of the colonized. State institutions, royal pageantry, archaeology, literature, mass culture, film, food, and tourism reveal how tradition was represented in historical texts, popular memory and nationalist politics. The class reflects critically on nationalism and on the producing and co-opting of historical discourse..