ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The purpose of this paper is to compare the aspects of the modern New Woman in women's novels published in Korea and China in the 1920s. First, it examines the background and cause of the emergence of the New Woman. Next, through women's novels, it studies the internal and external style of the New Woman as a builder of modern culture and contrasts various aspects of the New Woman's life: the aspect of a ‘girl student' as enlightening intellectual, a ‘modern wife' with modern married life and a ‘modern woman' with gender consciousness and desire. The study reveals that the New Woman fluctuated between expectations of progressive paradigms of the New Woman and identity confusion captured by traditional norms even though modern education and culture made women's life and consciousness change. Especially, in modern China, the New Woman was supported by Chinese intellectuals under the influenced of the May Fourth Movement. On the contrary, the New Woman was an object of hatred and a cause of conflict in Chosun dominated by a patriarchal system, a feudalistic idea and colonialism. The social environment had great influence on construction of gender and an unhappy life of the New Woman.

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