Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea (Politics, History, and Culture)
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: September 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9780822336167
Subjects: Family & relationships; Gender studies; Social & cultural anthropology; Women's Studies - General; History: World; Asia - Korea; History; Archaeology / Anthropology; Sociology - General; South Korea; Korea (South); Anthropology - Cultural; Asian Studies; Gender Studies/Feminist Theory; Sociology; Citizenship; Militarism; Sex role
Description: This pathbreaking study presents a feminist analysis of the politics of membership in the South Korean nation over the past four decades. Seungsook Moon examines the ambitious effort by which South Korea transformed itself into a modern industrial and militarized nation. She demonstrates that the pursuit of modernity in South Korea involved the construction of the anticommunist national identity and a massive effort to mold the populace into useful, docile members of the state. This process, which she terms "militarized modernity," treated men and women differently. Men were mobilized for mandatory military service and then, as conscripts, utilized as workers and researchers in the industrializing economy. Women were consigned to lesser factory jobs, and their roles as members of the modern nation were defined largely in terms of biological reproduction and household management. -- Back cover