Popularization of Korean historical and cultural studies in the 1930s

Abstract

In order to explore the topic of Korean Studies in the 1930s, we must first examine the temporal category of the 1930s. In other words, the Great Depression of 1929. The Great Depression called into question the “progress” of the Anglo-American capitalist system and raised expectations of change for socialists. More specifically, it questioned whether capitalism, which had driven the development and civilization of the West, could continue to do so. The ‘East’ was seen as a critical alternative to Western modernity. Previous research on Korean Studies in the 1930s has been conducted using the keywords 1930s, but there has been little consideration of the popularization of Korean Studies in 1930s. In this article, I will look for the popularization of Korean Studies in the spread of researchers and research topics and their communication with the public. For this purpose, I will examine the magazines ≪ Jogwang≫ and ≪ Joseonmyeonginjeon≫ together. The former introduced Choson history and culture to a mass audience, while the latter engaged experts in academia to ‘popularize’ historical figures. In the late 1930s, the contents of and reflected the situation of the ‘wartime regime’. Nevertheless, both media focused on popularizing knowledge and information about Korean history and culture. The difference between the two is that ‘common knowledge’ about Korean history and culture, including yadam, was excluded from ≪ Joseonmyeonginjeon≫ . This popularization of the study of Korean history and culture in the late 1930s was both continuous and disconnected from the study of Korean studies after liberation.