HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY KOREA

This course falls within the elective teachings of the "Korea" curriculum of the course "Languages, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa".
Its formative objectives fall within the area of cultural and humanistic skills learning.

Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowing and understanding the main elements of the history of Korea from 1876 to today.
- connect and understand concepts and methodologies connected with historiography.

Judgment abilities:
- ability to produce critiques on historical events included in the study programme, by recurring to historically solid arguments
- ability to identify and evaluate historical primary sources, in the wider panorama of Korean History within East Asian Modern and Contemporary History.

Communicative abilities:
- ability ot express and elaborate in writing the contents of the course programme, using critical approach and not mnemonical strategies.

Learning abilities:
- learn how to take notes effectively and thoroughly
- how to integrate the study on different materials (notes, slides, manuals, historical texts and academic articles)
- learning to study autonomously with materials and on subjects not covered in class
- Learning how to deal with materials in English

Having passed the exam of History of Korea 1

This class presents an overview of Modern Korean history, from 1876 to the present. Thus, this class provides a historical context for general modern Korea. Modern Korea spans stunning events such as Korean openings to the west, Japanese annexation of Korea, colonial hardship and change, an Korean liberation. Furthermore, it also covers the Korean War, Korean economic development, Korean democracy, and Korean globalization since 1990s. Thus, in this class, we will probe the historical trajectory of Korean experience. Students are expected to participate in lively discussions with careful reading of weekly assigned materials and to conduct individual research related to the class or their academic interest with consultation with the professor.

Part I. Late 19th to the Early 20th Century Korea
Week 1, Introduction to Course: Why we study Korean diaspora issues in modern Korea?
Week 2, Korean Traditional Society in Crisis
Week 3, Korean in the 1870-80s and Diaspora
Week 4, The Rise of Imperialism in East Asia and Korea in the 1880s-90s
Week 5, Korean Nationalism and Korean Diaspora in the US in the 1900s

Part II. Colonial Korea and Japanese Empire

Week 6, Road to Japanese Colonization and Korean Diaspora
Week 7, The First Phase of Japanese Colonial Rule and Korean Diaspora in the 1910s
Week 8, Mid-term Exam!
Week 9, March First Movement and the “Cultural Rule” in the 1920s
Week 10, Korean Coalition Movement (Sin’ganhoe) and Road to Japanese Invasion of Manchuria (1931)
Week 11, Japanese Expansion to Mainland China in the 1930s and Wartime Mobilization

Part III. Post-Colonial Korea and Contemporary Issues

Week 12: Korean Liberation, The Cold War and the Rise of Two Different Countries
Week 13, South Korea: Authoritarianism, Economic Development, and Democratization,
Week 14, North Korea: Authoritarian Regime
Week 15, Korean Civil Society, Gender Issues and Concluding Remarks

REQUIRED READINGS
Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History (NY: Nortons, 2005).
Jaeeun Kim, Contested Embrace: Trans-border Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2016).
Kyung Moon Hwang, A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
Ebrey, Patricia, Anne Walthal, and James Palais, East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009 (2nd edition).

- Active participation in the discussion (20%)
- Mid-term Exam (30%): TBA
- Final Paper (50%): at least 10 pages except bibliography.
- If you anticipate difficulty attending class or completing an assignment for any reason, please contact the professor as soon as possible. Special arrangements can be made, but not without prior notice.
- For students totally unable to attend classes there will be a special assignment to read and include in the final report.

The course consists of teacher-led classes

English

written