Legacies of Colonialism in East Asia: Term 2, Week 5
The Two Koreas
Questions:
Why was Manchuria the origin point of the North Korean revolution?
Japanese colonial legacies or cold war geo-politics, which do you think best attests for a divided
Korean peninsula?
Compare and contrast Soviet and American occupation of North and South Korea in terms of
cultural policy.
In what way does the position of women in N.Korea, and specifically the discourse of women’s
fashion there, reveal the complex legacies of Japanese colonialism?
Main Reading:
‘The Passions, 1945-1948’ (Chapter 4) in Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun (PDF scan)
‘Revolution on the Margins’ (Chapter 1) in Charles Armstrong, The North Korean Revolution,
1945-1950.
Charles Armstrong, ‘The Cultural Cold War in Korea, 1945-1950, Journal of Asian Studies, vol.
62 no.1: 71-99.
Suk-Young Kim, ‘Dressed to Kill: Women’s Fashion and Body Politics in North Korean Visual
Media’ positions: east asia cultural critique 19:1: 159-191.
Additional Reading:
Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun
Charles Armstrong, The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950
Bruce Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. 1 and 2.
Bruce Cumings, Paralax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations at the End of
the Century