News in Korean Literature, at Harvard and Beyond
Prof. David R. McCann at the Pajae School.
There is so much going on in the field of Korean literature. A graduate student conference is coming up in June, this year at Seoul National University, to follow the one held last spring at Harvard. (See Korea Institute Newsletter Vol. 10, Number 2.) Conceived and organized by Professor David McCann of Harvard and Professor Kwon Young-min of Seoul National University, last year's conference included participants from not only Harvard and Seoul National University, but also UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, University of British Columbia, Korea University, Ewha Woman's University, and Yonsei University. With participants coming from as many universities in both Korea and North America again this year, the conference is expected to further strengthen ties among young scholars of Korean literature from both sides of the Pacific.
The generous support of the Sunshik Min Endowment for the Advancement of Korean Literature at the Korea Institute has made several book publications possible this year. New volumes funded by the Min Endowment will be released by the University of Hawaii Press, the Cornell East Asia Series, and the Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation at Princeton University Press, among others. The book at Princeton, Enough to Say It's Far: Selected Poems of Pak Chaesam, is a collaboration between Jiwon Shin, Ph.D. 2003, now teaching at Berkeley, and David McCann, and is the first work of Korean literature to be published in the prestigious Lockert Series.
Support from the Min Endowment is also making possible the first annual Min Chapbook Competition for a short collection of Korea poetry in translation. The translators of the winning manuscript will receive a prize of five hundred dollars, and the collection will be published by Tamal Vista Publications. Information on the books mentioned above, as well as the chapbook competition, will be available on the Korea Institute website.
Two major landmarks in modern Korean literature have just been added to the published materials now available; or soon will be. Cornell's East Asia Series will be publishing Ann Lee's much awaited translation and study of Yi Kwangsu's 1917 novel The Heartless, Mujŏng, the first modern novel published in Korea. Wisdom Books just published Manhae, Han Yongun's 1926 collection of poems, Nimŭi ch'immuk under the title of Everything Yearned For: Manhae's Poems of Love and Longing.
David McCann hopes to add one more to this recent list, Kim Sowŏl's 1925 book Azaleas, in a dual language edition, with original poems edited by Professor Kwŏn Youngmin of Seoul National University based on the extremely rare 1925 first edition. The two began work on the project this past spring, when Kwŏn Youngmin was teaching at Harvard for McCann, who was on leave to complete the Azaleas project.
Harvard Ph.D. candidate Kyong-Mi Kwon recently published a translation of Yi Mun-yŏl's novella Twofold Song through Hollym International. It is the fruition of work she began as an International Communications Fellow in 2002. The bilingual edition is part of a ten volume series aimed at those interested in Korean literature in English speaking countries.
Other forthcoming publications include Flowers Long For Stars: Poems by Oh Sae-Young, a collection of what Tony Barnstone calls "plainly riddling, elegiacally simple and beautiful poems," from Tamal Vista Publications. Moreover, the Frankfurt Book Fair, in October, will feature Korea as the year's Guest of Honor, an event that is expected to facilitate the publication of many more volumes of Korean literature in translation.
Conferences recently at Rutgers and at Berkeley focused on Korean literature as well. The Rutgers conference especially seemed to bring out a large number of participants and observers, a strong indication of the field's growth in the United States. David McCann's participation at both of these conferences alongside a number of recent Harvard graduates and students suggests Harvard is making an important contribution to the development of the field.
In addition to promoting Korean Studies at events around the country, McCann was appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to advance Korea related activities at Harvard as the Korea Institute's third Director. He and his wife Ann traveled to Korea in August, where he received the Manhae Prize in Arts and Sciences at the annual Manhae Festival. Soon thereafter, the fall semester began in earnest. In addition to his teaching duties in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, McCann is involved with a busy Institute schedule, which includes flagship programs such as the Korea Colloquium and Current Affairs Forum, as well as projects new to both the Korea Institute and Harvard. Professor Sun Joo Kim hosted the second workshop of her three year project "The Northern Region, Identity and Culture in Korea" in February. The workshop occasioned many lively discussions on prominent literary, intellectual, and religious leaders from the region, territorial and economic development, and cultural identities of the northern region. A two-day conference will follow in October 2005. Another workshop, by our Post-doctoral Fellow, Dr. Chong Bum Kim, Ph.D. ‘04, will take place in May. A Harvard Conference on Koguryŏ History and Archaeology is scheduled in April, and has generated great interest internationally. This spring semester's events also include, for the first time, a presentation on the Korean Art collection at Harvard's Sackler Museum, and a weekly Korean Film Series, co-sponsored with the Harvard Film Archive and the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. The Institute thanks supporters from Harvard and abroad, particularly the Korea Foundation, the Korea Research Foundation, and the Korea Society in New York.
Finally, after three years, the Korea Institute, along with Harvard's International Centers, will be moving back to campus in July, to the newly built Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS). More information about the relocation will be available on the Korea Institute website as the move becomes finalized.
