The book consists of studies of six important intellectuals of the Korean late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. It shows how they positioned themselves in a period of crisis that necessitated hard choices but also afforded new intellectual and social opportunities.

During the decades around 1900, Koreans experienced a world falling apart and the need to quickly build a new one. Intellectuals naturally took centre stage in this era of epistemic paradigm change. This book is devoted to the study of the life and ideas of some of these intellectuals, focussing on how they dealt with the challenges of their times. Where did their respective moral and intellectual stances lead them, and what were the social, economic, and political constraints that bounded their trajectories? Their life stories provide micro-historical insights into a period that has been formative for modern and contemporary Korea, and illustrate the intellectual ferment inherent in an era of crisis and transition.

Autorentext

Marion Eggert teaches Korean Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Her research interests focus on Korean intellectual and literary history, including the history of knowledge, the intersection of traditions, and the formation of subjectivities.
Eun-Jeung Lee is Professor for Korean Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses are intercultural history of political ideas, political theory, transformation of systems, German unification, Korean politics and culture.
Vladimir Tikhonov teaches Korean and general East Asian Studies at Oslo University, Norway. His research interests are focused on modern and contemporary intellectual history and the history of social and political movements in Korea, with particular emphasis on nationalism and socialism.

Inhalt

Introduction - A New Place in the World: Ch'oe Han'gi's (1803 1875) Encyclopaedic Endeavour for Epistemic Restructuring -Seeking for Agency in Troubled Times: Pak nsik-"Fight Fire with Fire" Sin Ch'aeho (1880 1936) and his Anti-Colonial Social Darwinist Nationalism-H Chng-suk An Intellectual Who Broke the Mold of Custom and Fought for a New Society-Pak In-dk: Female Intellectual In-Between A New Woman Born in 1896-Bibliography