The Transnational-Translational Modernity: Language And Sexuality In Colonial Taiwan And Korea

Abstract

Dissertation Abstract This dissertation seeks to examine the modern construction of language and sexuality in colonial Taiwan and Korea. It takes a transnational approach to present a circuit of colonial modernity that differs substantially from that assumed by conventional colonial history, which focuses on a unidirectional impact from imperial powers. In particular, Taiwan and Korea are perceived as cultural entities through their vertical relations with their imperial pasts, and segregated from each other as the "unimagined communities." This research argues that the idea of "unimagined communities" enables a political engagement to examine and challenge the grounds for nationalist imagination; and this "unimagined communities" are not just as the communities that are beyond national boundaries, but also as those that are internal to Taiwanese or Korean society. In advancing this argument, this research tracks the processes of transnational exchange and translational shaping of the modern concepts of national language and literature, as well as romantic love and sexual desires in early twentieth-century Taiwan and Korea. By theorizing and historicizing the construction of modern ideas of language and sexuality, this research challenges the imperialist and nationalistic hegemonies with the notion of "untranslatability" in colonial linguistic and literary practices, and the "critical love" against the normative idea supporting intimate relationships in nation-building. These arguments are supported by the result of the investigation on considerable primary materials, including the novels and writings by literary icons of Taiwan and Korea, as well as numerous public debates and discussions from renowned newspapers and literary magazines in the colonial era.