Ellen Key

Writing Women in Korea

Writing Women in Korea explores the connections among translation, new forms of writing, and new representations of women in Korea from the early 1900s to the late 1930s. It examines shifts in the way translators handled material pertaining to women, the work of women translators of the time, and the relationship between translation and the original works of early twentieth-century Korean women writers. The book opens with an outline of the Chosôn period (1392-1910), when a vernacular writing system was invented, making it possible to translate texts into Korean--in particular, Chinese writings reinforcing official ideals of feminine behavior aimed at women. The legends of European heroines and foreign literary works (such as those by Ibsen) translated at the beginning of the twentieth century helped spur the creation of the New Woman (Sin Yôsông) ideal for educated women of the 1920s and 1930s. The role of women translators is explored, as well as the scope of their work and the constraints they faced as translators. Finally, the author relates the writing of Kim Myông-Sun, Pak Hwa-Sông, and Mo Yun-Suk to new trends imported into Korea through translation. She argues that these women deserve recognition for not only their creation of new forms of writing, but also their contributions to Korea’s emerging sense of herself as a modern and independent nation.

The Education of the Child

The Rights of the Child and the Changing Image of Childhood

In this book Philip E. Veerman presents and discusses milestones in the evolution of children's rights, as well as the work of a number of important pioneers in this field in order to examine whether the concept of childhood has changed in our century. With Samuel Shye's `Systemic Quality of Life Model' as a conceptual framework and uniform standard, more than forty Declarations and Conventions are analysed and compared. Veerman thus unfolds an exciting picture of the changing image of childhood, starting at the beginning of this century and culminating in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, and the World Summit for Children of 1990. Finally the author proposes, together with Samuel Shye, a Declaration on the Rights of the Child based on the `Systemic Quality of Life Model'. All the important Declarations and Conventions are reprinted as appendices. This makes Veerman's study a complete and up-to-date textbook on children's right. Dr. Veerman is the coordinator of the Israel Section of Defence for Children International (DCI) and Fellow of the Youth Policy Center of Haifa University.