Views at Variance: Korean Women Disrupting and Subverting the Narrative of Protestant Missionary Women Through Moments of Difference, 1884–1910

Abstract:

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, missionary women from North America went to Korea expecting to become role models that Korean women would see, be impressed with, and want to follow. While the voices of missionary women can be easily heard through their own plentiful writing, the points of view of the Korean women with whom they interacted remain almost entirely unheard. This article extracts the views of Korean women from the writings of missionary women by examining moments of difference, showing that silence does not always mean agreement. The unease of missionary women in reaction to the stares of Korean women demonstrates the power of the return gaze, while moments of forgiveness allude to a previous breach between women. Finally, the existence of Christian Korean women who sought careers instead of motherhood shows that the goals of Korean women were not always the same as those of missionary women. This article argues that Korean women often understood their interactions differently than did missionary women and, although they cannot speak with their own voices, these moments of difference show the autonomy of Korean women buried within the missionary text and their ability to subvert missionary expectations.