The Great Enterprise—Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea

Surveying historical works written over the course of the twentieth century, Em elucidates the influence of Christian missionaries, as well as the role that Japan's colonial policy played in determining the narrative framework for defining Korea's national past. Em goes on to analyze postcolonial works in which South Korean historians promoted national narratives appropriate for South Korea's place in the U.S.-led Cold War system. Throughout, Em highlights equal sovereignty's creative and productive potential to generate oppositional subjectivities and vital political alternatives.

Henry H. Em is Associate Professor of Asian Studies, Underwood International College, Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. He is coeditor of the Korean-language volume Entangled Modernities: Crossings between Korean and Japanese Studies.