Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea FROM THE PUBLISHER
Past scholarship on the culture of nationalism has largely focused on the ways in which institutions utilize memory and "history" to construct national identity. Laura C. Nelson challenges these assumptions with regard to South Korea, arguing that its identity has been as much tied to notions of the future as rooted in a recollection of the past. Measured Excess offers an analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country's national identity - giving specific attention to the manner in which women, as the primary agents of consumption, have been affected by this transformation." "Following a backlash against consumerism in the late 1980s, the government spearheaded a program of frugality that eschewed imported goods and foreign travel in favor of strengthening South Korea's national identity. Consumption - with its focus on immediate gratification - threatened those future-oriented aspects of the state's discourse of national unity. In response to this perceived danger, Nelson asserts, the government cast women as the group whose "excessive desires" for material goods were endangering the nation.
SYNOPSIS
This insightful analysis of the ways in which South Korean economic development strategies have reshaped the country´s national identity gives specific attention to the manner in which women, as the primary agents of consumption, have been affected by this transformation. In a provocative departure from previous scholarship on the culture of n
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Nelson (an anthropologist) presents the results of her field work in South Korea, centering on the relationship between consumer nationalism, gender and status. These six chapters explicate the concept of consumer nationalism, describe the influences which have created it, and describe its role in Korean culture and society. The status associated with excess and the dangers of over-consumption are considered in turn. Five vignettes provide glimpses into South Korean society at particular moments in recent history, between 1985 and 1993. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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