• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.282-300
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• 2009

This paper attempts to focus the ways in which Seoul as an urban space can be read and interpreted from gender perspective, assuming Seoul as a cultural text which represents modernity and post-modernity. Drawing on discussions of urban sociology and human geography which have analyzed the relationship between material spaces and social subjects, this paper explores the gendered segregation and representations of space in Seoul which has been constructed through the process of modernization. The framework of spatial interpretation of Seoul, concentrating on imageablity and legibility, consists of three dimensions; gendered division of labour and sphere, dichotomy of representations along with femininity and masculinity, and the ways of interlocking between modernity and post-modernity. In this paper, 'fl$\check{a}$nerie', Benjamin's method of interpretation of urban culture and the way of seeing with 'speculum' of Irigaray are adopted as metaphoric methodologies. It is an attempt to develop a new methodology to analyze and interpret urban space from gender-cultural perspective.