The Review of Korean Studies
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
Representing Korea as the “Other”: Ernst J. Oppert’s A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea
Abstract
This paper endeavors to analyze A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea (1880), a text written by a Jewish-Prussian by the name of Ernst J. Oppert. I focus on Oppert’s representation of Korea mirrored by China and Japan because his discovery of Korea was mediated by that of the other two empires. In the first place, I argue that the biography of Oppert, merely known as a “traveler” or “ethnographer” (or merchant), should be taken into re-consideration as an author and must be more complexly reevaluated in light of the nineteenth century European colonial projects in Asian countries that he actively participated in during his stay in Shanghai. The text, in this sense, must be positioned as one of the early Westerners’ writings on Korea in which discourses on the “forbidden land” were being constructed in comparison with China and Japan whose doors were already open. While the text, according to the author, was intended to attract the Western public’s attention and subsequently to commence with trade and commerce, it in fact reflected Oppert’s “colonial” desire to open a “sealed book” (Oppert 1880:3). The text can be divided into two parts. The first contains chapters one to six that introduce almost all aspects of Korea but rely on European research achievements and their translations of Chinese and Japanese historical sources. The second part, chapters seven to nine, cover Oppert’s three voyages allegedly designed to arrange trade partnerships with the Joseon government, yet which I posit into “encounters” between the two heterogeneous worlds. In this part, different worldviews between Oppert and the native officials were dramatically expressed in relation to the then priority of the “pening of the ports.” By perceiving the “hermit kingdom” mainly in the dialogues with and references to China and Japan who opened their doors earlier, Korea was represented as “in-between” and “uncivilized.”
- keywords
- Korea, China, Japan, discovery, encounter, in-between, uncivilized, forbidden, representation, post(-)colonialism.
Reference
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