Why did the letter-writing culture of Korea diversify in the sixteenth century? How did this “epistolary revolution” change textual norms, modes of knowledge production, the ways that people interacted, and the methods of political mobilization?

The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea (U Washington Press, 2020) by Hwisang Cho tackles these questions, exploring the materiality of epistles in Chosŏn Korea. It demonstrates how letter-writing practices were used by women, Confucian scholars, and provincial schools — those who had no other means of political activism — to advance political goals, thus offering a new perspective on the relationship between writing and politics in the Chosŏn period. While The Power of the Brush does focus on Korea, it does a wonderful job of continually contextualizing Korea’s epistolary culture within a global context. The parallels that are drawn in this book between letter writing in Europe, America, Islamic societies, and East Asia thus offer entirely new perspectives on global letter writing. Beautifully written and rich in detail, this book should be of interest to scholars of Korean studies, the history of the book, and anyone who has ever sent off a missive of their own.

The Power of the Brush is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of Emory University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Sarah Bramao-Ramos is a Research Assistant Professor at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. She can be reached at [email protected]

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