Korea Between Empireschronicles the development of a Korean national consciousness. It focuses on two critical periods in Korean history and asks how key concepts and symbols were created and integrated into political programs to create an original Korean understanding of national identity, the nation-state, and nationalism. Looking at the often-ignored questions of representation, narrative, and rhetoric in the construction of public sentiment, Andre Schmid traces the genealogies of cultural assumptions and linguistic turns evident in Korea's major newspapers during the social and political upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Newspapers were the primary location for the re-imagining of the nation, enabling readers to move away from the conceptual framework inherited from a Confucian and dynastic past toward a nationalist vision that was deeply rooted in global ideologies of capitalist modernity. As producers and disseminators of knowledge about the nation, newspapers mediated perceptions of Korea's precarious place amid Chinese and Japanese colonial ambitions and were vitally important to the rise of a nationalist movement in Korea.

Acknowledgments p. ix
Introduction: A Monumental Story p. 1
Civilization and the East p. 9
Colonialism and History p. 13
The Boundaries of the Nation p. 17
The Universalizing Winds of Civilization p. 23
Internal Disorder, External Calamities p. 24
Globalizing the National and Nationalizing the Global p. 32
The Pundits of the Nation p. 38
The Eyes and Ears of the Nation p. 47
Decentering the Middle Kingdom and Realigning the East p. 55
Demoting China p. 56
Authentic Culture, Pure Identities p. 60
The Language of Nationalism p. 64
From King to Emperor p. 72
A National Flag p. 78
A Lost Korean and Eastern Civilization p. 80
Peace and Unity in a Racially Defined East p. 86
The Disintegration of Eastern Solidarity p. 92
Engaging a Civilizing Japan p. 101
The Authority of Japan p. 103
A Nationalist Dialogue p. 113
Images of the yangban p. 121
The Dangers of sadaejuui p. 129
Colonial Denouement p. 136
Spirit, History, and Legitimacy p. 139
A Spirited Nation p. 140
From Ancient Imperial Myths to Modern Colonizing Myths p. 146
Contentious Histories p. 154
Japanese Colonialism on the International Stage p. 160
Narrating the Ethnic Nation p. 171
National Etymologies p. 172
Legitimacy as a National Narrative p. 175
History as Genealogy p. 180
The State of History p. 188
From Man to God p. 192
Peninsular Boundaries p. 199
Bordering China p. 201
A Public Border p. 211
The Decline of Geomancy and Mount Paektu p. 216
Beyond the Peninsula p. 224
A Korean Manchuria p. 226
Irredentist Voices p. 233
The Diasporic Nation p. 236
Turning the Nation Inside Out p. 240
Custodians of the Nation p. 246
Epilogue p. 253
Language Purity p. 257
Toward a Postcolonial History p. 261
Northward Gaze p. 270
Notes p. 279
Bibliography p. 337
Index p. 359