Project MUSE®: Acta Koreana - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Acta Koreana.daily12026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (1998) through current issue
Latest Articles: Acta KoreanaTWOProject MUSE®Acta Koreana2733-53481520-7412Latest articles in Acta Koreana. Feed provided by Project MUSE®How Three Kingdoms Became a National Novel of Korea: From Sanguozhi yanyi to Samgukchi by Hyuk-chan Kwon
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978909
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How Three Kingdoms Became a National Novel of Korea is a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the history of books, reading, and literary practices in premodern Korea. The author, Hyuk-chan Kwon, is attentive to the complexities of the shift from the premodern to the modern in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries due to the rise of modern commercial publishing and the underlying paradox of that shift. On the one hand, premodern works had greater reach due to modern printing technology and the drive for profit. On the other hand, commercial interests and the preferences of readers meant that Three Kingdoms, a famous Chinese novel dating roughly from the early fifteenth century and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallHow Three Kingdoms Became a National Novel of Korea: From Sanguozhi yanyi to Samgukchi by Hyuk-chan Kwon2026-01-09text/htmlen-USHow Three Kingdoms Became a National Novel of Korea: From Sanguozhi yanyi to Samgukchi by Hyuk-chan Kwon2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®216092026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Beyond the State Examinations: Evaluations of Knowledge in Premodern Korea ed. by Martin Gehlmann and Vladimír Glomb
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978910
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Beyond the State Examinations is a compilation of seven articles that explore how knowledge was evaluated and examined in Chosŏn society. The forms of knowledge discussed in the volume range from Confucian texts, Buddhist doctrine, and meditational practices, to military skills, and literary endeavors. “Examinations” in this context refer to tests administered by the state or undertaken by institutions or individuals, but not the civil and military service examinations through which the state recruited officials. In this respect, the types of knowledge and modes of examination examined in these articles fall outside the bureaucratic sphere of intellectual practice in Chosŏn Korea.The first two articles address
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallBeyond the State Examinations: Evaluations of Knowledge in Premodern Korea ed. by Martin Gehlmann and Vladimír Glomb2026-01-09text/htmlen-USBeyond the State Examinations: Evaluations of Knowledge in Premodern Korea ed. by Martin Gehlmann and Vladimír Glomb2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®137672026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Editors’ Note
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978911
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The Editorial Committee is pleased to present the December 2025 issue of Acta Koreana. The issue opens with “Obscuring Treachery: The Ancestors of Yi Sŏnggye and the Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty” by Ilsoo Cho of Seoul National University. Cho investigates the ancestral origins of Yi Sŏnggye, the founder of the Chosŏn dynasty, and concludes that both official narratives and alternative theories suggesting that Yi’s ancestors were Jurchens are incorrect. Instead, Cho takes note of the overlooked fact that Yi Sŏnggye’s ancestors had worked for a family that turned against Koryŏ during the Mongol invasions and that his father eventually managed to appropriate the wealth and position of the family for whom he once
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallEditors’ Note2026-01-09text/htmlen-USEditors’ Note2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®89662026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Obscuring Treachery: The Ancestors of Yi Sŏnggye and the Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978912
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Dynastic changes are rare in Korean history. The Koryŏ 高麗 dynasty (918–1392) withstood numerous violent uprisings and foreign invasions throughout its long history, and the fact that its officials ended the dynasty in 1392 has attracted much scholarly attention. For many decades, scholarship on the establishment of the Chosŏn 朝鮮 dynasty has focused on the socioeconomic or institutional factors that made its founding an inevitability. In particular, John Duncan’s study has shed new light on the geographical, institutional, and demographical factors that precipitated the Koryŏ—Chosŏn transition, including the profound changes the Korean aristocracy experienced over the longue durée.1 However, the role of Yi Sŏnggye
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallObscuring Treachery: The Ancestors of Yi Sŏnggye and the Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty2026-01-09text/htmlen-USObscuring Treachery: The Ancestors of Yi Sŏnggye and the Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®1121362026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Decolonizing the Periodization of South Korean Archaeology: From Fujita Ryosaku to Kim Wŏllyong and Han’guk kogohak kaesŏl
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978913
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Archaeological research on the Korean peninsula is strongly tied to Japanese colonization. Following the absorption of Chosŏn into the Japanese Empire, the colonial government undertook intense archaeological activity, funding general surveys, archaeological excavations, and research publications. In particular, the contributions of Fujita Ryosaku 藤田亮策 (1892–1960) were important as he proposed one of the most influential periodization systems for archaeology on the peninsula. Following the liberation of Korea in 1945, South Korean archaeologists initiated their own archaeological research, often as a direct response to the work of the colonial authorities. However, Fujita’s periodization system remained the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallDecolonizing the Periodization of South Korean Archaeology: From Fujita Ryosaku to Kim Wŏllyong and Han’guk kogohak kaesŏl2026-01-09text/htmlen-USDecolonizing the Periodization of South Korean Archaeology: From Fujita Ryosaku to Kim Wŏllyong and Han’guk kogohak kaesŏl2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®1303192026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Catching Weasels in Silent Mountains: A Multispecies History of Hunting in North Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978914
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On February 12, 1958, G. I. Bulgakov ( Г. И. Булгаков), a mid-ranking Soviet diplomat stationed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea), visited Wŏn Honggu 元洪九, the country’s foremost ornithologist, to present a new book on the fauna of the Chita region of Russia.1 During their conversation, Wŏn divulged troubling information: People were hunting without any restriction. Contrary to the portrayal of the North Korean wilderness in state media as what I define as Silent Mountains devoid of human noise, the local fauna was in severe decline, with some species already driven to extinction.2 Pheasants, Wŏn noted, had been hunted to extinction, prompting him to advocate for a nationwide campaign
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallCatching Weasels in Silent Mountains: A Multispecies History of Hunting in North Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s2026-01-09text/htmlen-USCatching Weasels in Silent Mountains: A Multispecies History of Hunting in North Korea from the 1940s to the 1960s2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®976602026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Translating Korean Comfort Women: Narrative Strategies for Kim Soom’s One Left
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978915
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The term wianbu 慰安婦 (comfort women) is a euphemism for the Korean women and girls whom the Japanese military, with the assistance of officials in colonial Korea, deceived and coerced into sexual slavery during the Pacific War. The Japanese military took these women from Korea to military brothels (or comfort stations) overseas, where the victims suffered years of sexual violence and inhumane treatment. However, the discourse on this historical atrocity has often been filtered through patriarchal, nationalist, and political lenses, leading to persistent misunderstandings and historiographical disputes. The Japanese government has denied the existence of an institutionalized system of sexual exploitation, making the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallTranslating Korean Comfort Women: Narrative Strategies for Kim Soom’s One Left2026-01-09text/htmlen-USTranslating Korean Comfort Women: Narrative Strategies for Kim Soom’s One Left2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®1312292026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Surviving the Neoliberal Apocalypse: Endangered Youth and Gendered Posthumans in South Korean Transmedia Storytelling
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978916
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For the US-based streaming service Netflix, 2021 marked the release of what would become its most-watched drama up to that point—the survival thriller Squid Game (Ojingŏ keim; dir. Hwang Tonghyŏk). Though unprecedented in scale, this success was not accidental. Just one year before, the monster horror series Sweet Home (Sŭwit’ŭ hom; dir. Yi Ŭngbok, 2020) broke into the Netflix top 10 in the US and was number one in eight other countries.1 Heralding the transnational appeal of “K-apocalypse,” All of Us Are Dead (Chigŭm uri hakkyo nŭn; dir. Yi Chaegyu) set new records following its premier on January 28, 2022. The zombie thriller set in a local high school became Netflix’s fifth most popular non-English-language
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallSurviving the Neoliberal Apocalypse: Endangered Youth and Gendered Posthumans in South Korean Transmedia Storytelling2026-01-09text/htmlen-USSurviving the Neoliberal Apocalypse: Endangered Youth and Gendered Posthumans in South Korean Transmedia Storytelling2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®1133082026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09Yi Kibaek and Internal Development Theory
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978917
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Internal development theory (naejaejŏk palchŏnnon 內在的 發展論) has been one of the most influential and enduring approaches to the systematic study of Korean history since its classic articulation in the 1960s by Yi Kibaek (李基白, 1924–2004) in Han’guksa sillon 韓國 史新論 (A new history of Korea), which was translated into English by Edward Wagner in 1984.1 Internal development theory is conventionally invoked in its modern mode to advance the position that the so-called “sprouts of capitalism” had appeared and would eventually have led naturally toward Western-style modernization if Chosŏn 朝鮮 (1392–1910) had been left alone and not been colonized by imperial Japan (1868–1945). In its premodern mode, it links social
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallYi Kibaek and Internal Development Theory2026-01-09text/htmlen-USYi Kibaek and Internal Development Theory2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®905192026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09C1+y = :[8]: by Kim Chunghyŏk
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978918
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The present translation was created collaboratively by students in the class CAS LK 460 Korean Translation (Fall 2023) under the guidance of Professor Dennis Wuerthner in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Boston University. Over the course of the semester, each student was tasked with translating one part of the story and presenting their version of the relevant section in class. The student’s classmates peer-reviewed the translation, and the group then discussed and jointly refined each passage with input from the instructor. This translation thus represents both the students’ individual dedication and their collective achievement. The student translators were Olivia Hwang, Do Yeon Kim, Min
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-19T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/772/image/coversmallC1+y = :[8]: by Kim Chunghyŏk2026-01-09text/htmlen-USC1+y = :[8]: by Kim Chunghyŏk2026-01-092026TWOProject MUSE®492392026-05-19T00:00:00-05:002026-01-09