Fate and Freedom in Korean Historical Films

Kyung Moon Hwang is Korea Foundation Professor at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is the author of A History of Korea (Third Edition, 2021), Past Forward: Essays in Korean History (2019), Rationalizing Korea: The Rise of the Modern State (2015), and Beyond Birth: Social Status in the Emergence of Modern Korea (2004).

• Introduction.- Chapter 1: Freedom and Fate in the People and Monarchy: The Early Joseon Era, 15th-16th Centuries.- Chapter 2: Forces of Nature on the Topographies of the Nation: Responses to the Calamitous Foreign Invasions, 1590s-1630s.- Chapter 3: Tracking National Destiny: Prince Sado and the 18th Century Monarchy.- Chapter 4: Facing the End of Days: Crises and Potential in the 19th Century.- Chapter 5: Crafting Independence: Gender, Class, and Reorientation under Colonial Rule, 1896–1945.- Chapter 6: Hope amid Unrelenting Carnage: National Division and the Korean War, 1945-53.- Chapter 7: Struggle for Self-Determination: Development, Dictatorship, and Democratisation in South Korea, 1960s-80s.- Chapter 8: The Cyclical Buildup of Historical Burdens: Reckonings in the Post-Democratization Era, 1980s-2010s.