Discourses of Nation: Tensions in Early Modern Korea-Japan Relations

Abstract

This dissertation aims to reframe the patterns of interaction between Korean and Japanese officials and scholars of the early modern period as a clash and conflict driven by what historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) referred to as “proto-nationalism,” pre-modern forms of political bonds and identities that may have contributed to the swift rise of modern nationalism as a powerful political force in the modern era. Working primarily through the prism of intellectual history, this dissertation shows that contentious Korea-Japan debates over civilization, mountains, military power, and ancient history, including both direct interactions as well as behind-the-scenes transmissions of ideas through books, not only highlighted the profound differences between the two countries’ proto-national identities, but also worked to strengthen them in response. In conclusion, this dissertation also argue that this long history of proto-nationalist contentions in the early modern period, defined here as the period between the early seventeenth century and mid-nineteenth century, also provides a broad historical context in the rise of Japanese interventionism in Korea during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.