Discourse on Women in the MAEILSHINBO in the 1910s and the Formulation of Colonial Women

Abstract

In order to systematize the changes in the women's movement and women's discourse during the Japanese colonial period, this study aimed to investigate and analyze the characteristics of women's discourse data in the MAEILSHINBO in the 1910s. This newspaper played a role in promoting colonial policies to the extent that it was recognized as the official newspaper of the Japanese colonial government during the Japanese colonial period, and it also shows colonial regression in women's discourse. In this study, data that can confirm women's discourse was investigated for editorials, editorials, articles, and columns of this newspaper, and based on this, the content of the discourse was classified by field, and the content was analyzed accordingly. As a result, it was discovered that there were certain characteristics in the material of discourse on women appearing in the MAEILSHINBO in the 1910s. First, data related to women's issues have been continuously published in this newspaper since modern times. However, most of the data from the 1910s were expressed in terms of ‘BUIN(wife)’ or ‘YEOJA(woman)’, and the term ‘YEOJA’was used very limitedly. Second, discourses such as ‘women's labor’ and ‘BUEOP(side work)’ appear most frequently in the content or distribution of discourses on women. In particular, by guarding against ‘women who do not work’ and ‘women indulged in luxury and vanity’, the logic that these women are the cause of poverty is often developed, which is a logic that regards women as objects of colonial assimilation. Third, the issue of women's education also reflects the retirement of the modern view of women. The primary goal of education was to ‘cultivate innocent people’, and education for women also aims to make compliant women. Fourth, it can be confirmed that the women's discourse in this newspaper aimed to formulate colonial women who combined nationalism based on the traditional view of women is emphasizing. As such, the disappearance of women's discourse under the colonial rule in the 1910s shows a major change in the newspaper media reflecting the position of Koreans after the cultural movement in the 1920s. Therefore, this study is expected to contribute to some extent in objectifying the changing aspects of women's discourse during the Japanese colonial period.