Book excerpt: This book discusses perceptions of ‘femininity’ in contemporary South Korea and the extent to which fictional representations in South Korean women’s fiction of the 1990s challenges the enduring association of the feminine with domesticity, docility and passivity. While existing literature addresses Korean women’s legal, educational, political and employment issues, this study is the first to analyse the cultural values that define femininity in the context of the Korean cultural imagination, concentrating on literary representations of femininity.