ABSTRACT
This article delineates the gap between the West and Korea, especially Western women and Korean women, as represented in the travel writings of Rha Hye-seok, and tries to identify its features in detail. From her writings about her two years of Western travel, Rha’s dual character is made evident. On the one hand, she was a “tourist” who enjoyed travel within the modern system (Mantetsu) constructed by the colonial suzerain and its benefits. On the other hand, Rha was a “women’s liberationist” and “colonial intellectual” who expressed excessive adoration and desire for the Western style of family and the status of women. Adoration or admiration of the West in her writing seems to be a key feature of Rha’s modernism but also exceeds comprehension through such lenses; the increasing antagonism toward Rha in Korean society, especially from Korean men, caused her excessive adoration and desire for Western culture and style of family. Thus, here rose an irony: Rha, who argued more strongly than anyone else that the “ideal home” modeled on Western advanced countries, was necessary for Korean society but was perceived as a suspicious character threatening the Korean “ideal home.”
