Romantic Love in Colonial Korea: Feminist Attempts at Liberation

Romantic love, or yeonae, as a modern concept was introduced to
Korea during the Japanese colonial period. It became a rich source
of discourse during this time which revealed the contradictions and
complexities of modern, colonial Korea. While both men and women
actively participated in this discourse, Korean women in particular, saw
the opportunity to seek liberation through these changing definitions
of romantic love. This essay compares the different discourses on
yeonae generated by two groups of women: the New Women and
communist women. While the New Women emphasized education
and free marriage, communist women advocated for “red love” and
comradely love. The divergence between these two groups reflects
differences in their political views and class backgrounds as well as
the broad range of responses to the discourse on yeonae. However,
ultimately neither group was successful in liberating themselves via a
discourse on romantic love due to the subsuming of women’s issues
under nationalism and the reinforcement of a domestic patriarchy
following Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonization. This reflects
the resilience of patriarchy in co-opting potentially liberating discourses.