Intellectuals in Between : Koreans in a Changing World, 1850 to 1945

During the decades around 1900, Koreans experienced a world falling apart and the need to quickly build a new one. Intellectuals naturally took centre stage in this era of epistemic paradigm change. This book is devoted to the study of the life and ideas of some of these intellectuals, focussing on how they dealt with the challenges of their times. Where did their respective moral and intellectual stances lead them, and what were the social, economic, and political constraints that bounded their trajectories? Their life stories provide micro-historical insights into a period that has been formative for modern and contemporary Korea, and illustrate the intellectual ferment inherent in an era of crisis and transition.

Marion Eggert teaches Korean Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Her research interests focus on Korean intellectual and literary history, including the history of knowledge, the intersection of traditions, and the formation of subjectivities.
Eun-Jeung Lee is Professor for Korean Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses are intercultural history of political ideas, political theory, transformation of systems, German unification, Korean politics and culture.
Vladimir Tikhonov teaches Korean and general East Asian Studies at Oslo University, Norway. His research interests are focused on modern and contemporary intellectual history and the history of social and political movements in Korea, with particular emphasis on nationalism and socialism.