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The Invention of Chaste Motherhood: A Feminist Reading of the Remarriage Ban in the Chosun Era(1)
Abstract
The remarriage ban and the ideology of chastity have been critical elements of the Korean patriarchy and system of social status since the Chosun era. This paper investigates the process of establishing the remarriage ban, and how it occurs in the discourse of the Chosun Wangjo Shilluk (Chronicles of the Chosun Era). Remarriage was not legally banned but the so-called `remarriage ban' was enforced in the following ways: first, the practice of sushinjon whereby land was awarded to chaste widows was abolished. Furthermore, the Anti-Remarriage Law was used to discourage remarriage by disallowing sons of remarried women from assuming public office. Chaste motherhood was invented, by linking the sexuality of mothers to the careers of their sons. For the lower class groups, women's chastity was glorified by dispensing prizes such as symbols of status for the family and tax exemptions. This process reveals how a key social ideology was constructed and Confucianism was translated into an ideology of chastity for the subjugation of women within the patriarchal system. Further research is needed on how the remarriage ban operated along with other mechanisms for connecting motherhood with the sexuality of women and the system of social status.
Introduction
The Chosun era (1392-1910) is understood as a period during which the Confucian patriarchy was established in Korea and the so-called remarriage ban is one of its core signifiers. The Anti-Remarriage Law, enacted in 1477, did not ban remarriage as such, but instead discouraged second (or third) marriages by preventing the offspring, that is sons, from such marriages from holding state public service positions. It was included in the Kyonkukdaejon (Book of National Administration), compiled during the reign of Sungjong (1469-1494).(2) While this followed Chinese law, it contained features unique to Korea such as the Anti-Remarriage Law and Soulchadaebob or the law that discriminated against children of concubines or other illegitimate wives. The Anti-Remarriage Law has been interpreted as the so-called remarriage ban and has exerted its influence over women right up to modern-day Korea. The Kappo Reforms of 1894, considered to be the starting point of the modern period in Korea, included a provision that widows of both low...