The Making of Modern Subjects: Public Discourses on Korean Female Spectators in the Early Twentieth Century (Gender, Diversity, and Culture in History and Politics)

In the early 20th century, Korean women began to manifest themselves in the public sphere. Sung Un Gang explores how the women's gaze was reimagined in public discourse as they attended plays and movies, delving into the complex negotiation process surrounding women's public presence. In this first extensive study of Korean female spectators in the colonial era, he analyzes newspapers, magazines, fictions, and images, arguing that public discourse aimed to mold them into a male-driven and top-down modernization project. Through a meticulous examination of historical sources, this study reconceptualizes colonial Korean female spectators as diverse, active agents with their own politics who played a crucial role in shaping colonial publicness.

Sung Un Gang, born in 1985, works as a postdoc researcher at the Collective Research Center (SFB) 1265 at Technische Universität Berlin. The media and cultural studies scholar finished his doctorate in theater and media studies at Universität Köln. In 2018 he was a junior fellow at the International Center for Korean Studies of the Kyujanggak Institute, Seoul. His research focuses on historical discourse analysis and qualitative social research of Korea and Germany from the late 19th century to the present.