Women’s Role in Popular Romance Stories in the 1930s Colonial Korea

Abstract

This presentation explores the role of women in little-known popular romance stories of 1930s colonial Korea, both as represented images in fiction and as female readers of “low-brow” literary genres. It also examines transformations in the representation of women in fictional texts about “romantic love” from the 1920s to the 1930s. In the 1930s, popular literature diversified into several different forms—serialized in newspapers and magazines, single books, or “paperback popular fiction” (ttakchibon)—with the commercially driven aim of gaining a wider readership. While some elite male writers continued to feature modern and enlightened female figures as embodiments of “pure” or romantic love, popular romance fiction (t’ongsok sosŏl) portrayed modern but immoral or even licentious women who are in conflict with emerging capitalist culture. Influenced by Japanese ren’ai (“romantic love”) discourse and sensationalism, authors utilized the representation of carnal desire in intimate relationships as a central theme. I also pay attention to the readership of these popular romance stories. Writers and critics in the 1930s started discussions on the assumed readership of popular literature, thus reflecting the increasing number of female readers. But the growth in publication sales in the late 1930s suggests that popular romance stories were read by men and women alike. I argue that female protagonists do not merely speak for the ideal romance sought by female readers, but represent femininities that patriarchal social values demand.