Translating Confessions: Korean Vernacular Voicing of the Penitent Self

Abstract

precis:

This essay examines how early-nineteenth-century Korean Catholic women practiced confession within the Sinographic linguistic context. When Korean Catholics did not have access to confession through priests, they performed confession through both vernacular writing and brush talk, a method of communication that enabled spoken confession to be "heard" in written Sinographs. This essay draws special attention to the Korean Catholic women whose celibacy was disallowed by the ecclesial authority of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris. Introducing the stories of Korean Catholic women from a Latin letter written by one of Korea's earliest priests, Thomas Ch'oe Yangŏp, the essay demonstrates how Korean Catholic women navigated the multimodality of confessional practice.