Intersectionality and the marginalisation of women in the Chosŏn dynasty : paintings and the reflections of conflicted realities in the Confucian state.

Abstract

The ideological shift from Buddhism to Confucianism and the deepened integration of Confucian ideology in the late-Chosŏn dynasty resulted in the reformation and transformation of multiple aspects of society and culture. This integration of Confucian values into society had deep lasting effects especially in relation to the lives of women who lived in a vastly different manner compared to the prior social landscape of Koryo. Within the highly stratified society of Chosŏn, women experienced different realities based on circumstances such as class, religion and social standing. Intersectionality as a framework will be employed to account for the intersecting oppressions women faced as individuals in a society idealised by Confucianism. The scarcity of sources detailing the lives of women in historical documents and records of the Chosŏn dynasty thereby require the employment of a greater variety of sources such as art is required. It is therefore through art and visual culture that this paper will make apparent the conflicted realities and intersectional oppressions experienced by women who were marginalised not merely on the basis of gender but also that of class, religion and social standing in the wake of a crumbling Confucian order in the Late Chosŏn Dynasty.