Korean as transitional literacy: language policy and Korean colonial education, 1910-1919

One area of research that has garnered meager albeit growing attention in Korean history is the intersection of language, literacy, and education, the examination of which demands a transnational perspective, as well as an interdisciplinary methodology. Within the colonial paradigm, a transnational conceptualization is indeed the only way to fundamentally grasp the linguistic configuration (Yasuda 1997) or landscape1 as it was actualized in the colonial public school. Focusing on the first decade of Japanese colonial rule in Korea (1910-1919), I examine the interaction between the Korean language and the various other languages and écrituresthat constituted the colonial linguistic landscape. I argue that a multiplicity of factors influenced the formation of literacies during this period, including the interactive (and necessarily competitive) relationships between languages and writing practices, the development of literature and writing styles, processes of translation, and dictionary compilation. Despite the functioning of these processes, the ultimate vector of literacy establishment and linguistic dominance was the Japanese public school (K. pot'onghakkyo) and its language policies due to its primary institutional role in normalizing language legitimization. By tracing the shifting contours of the linguistic configuration from the outset of colonial rule, I attempt to reveal how the foundations of subsequent cultural hegemony were laid, while simultaneously contributing to the development of a more nuanced understanding of change and transition in modern Korean history, especially at the underexplored intersection of Korean language, literacy, and education.