DISSERTATION PROJECT

Beyond Eurocentric Modernity:
Religious Temporalities and Future Imaginations in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Korea

Scholars often distinguish between linear, cyclical, and spiral models of time; yet no culture or tradition can be reduced to a single temporal pattern. Examining how historical actors envisioned the future makes this plurality especially visible, as future-oriented discourse brings together different understandings of how time flows. Approaching such future imaginaries in East Asia offers a way to reconfigure narratives of modernity and reveals the coexistence and interaction of multiple temporalities.

This study investigates how different religious and national groups imagined their own and communal future in the arena of Korea and interacted on the intercultural level. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries allows for close observation of the complex dynamics among diverse religious groups (Buddhist, Christian, Chŏndoist (天道敎), and Neo-Confucian) and among different nations (Korea, Japan, China, and Western imperial powers).

By showing that multiple temporal models coexisted and overlapped within religious groups, this study expands discussions on modernity through a religious lens and via East Asian visions of the future. For example, while future-oriented concepts of progress and reform were often framed by linear temporality in technological or economic spheres, they were also actively shaped by the cyclical and spiral temporalities of religious and aesthetic contexts. These multifaceted visions of time were not developed in isolation but were forged through intense historical shifts. Although colonial pressures deeply influenced Korea’s modern era, the peninsula also served as a hub for wider transregional entanglements. Through encounters with China and Japan, Korean actors reflected on Western models while cultivating a sense of East Asia, envisioning futures that were shaped by unique political dynamics.

To examine these dynamics, the study focuses on periodicals published and contributed to by Korean intellectuals between the 1890s and the 1930s. As platforms for intellectual exchange and vessels for disseminating the Zeitgeist to broader publics, these periodicals effectively illuminate the plurality of futures envisioned in Korea and their capacity to challenge—and at times complement—prevailing accounts of modernity in East Asia.