Profile: Seung-Hee Jeon, PhD 2005

Seung-Hee Jeon received her PhD from Harvard in Comparative Literature in June 2005. Her dissertation entitled "Rethinking Truth after ‘the Age of Extremes’: An Analysis of the Chronotope of Anamnesis in Autobiographical Narratives by Pak, Klüger, and Kogawa" examines the recently emerging genre of literary memoirs by survivors of extreme events. Drawing on theories by Eric Hobsbawm, Judith Herman, Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra and Mikhail Bakhtin, it captures in a new term, ‘the chronotope of anamnesis,’ a dynamic concept of truth embodied in memoirs by three women survivors of the Korean War, the Japanese Internment, and the Holocaust. Seung-Hee’s dissertation is one of the first attempts at this kind of interdisciplinary theorization of the genre of literary memoirs. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Research Grant.

Seung-Hee’s current research interests include revising her dissertation and turning it into a book tentatively entitled The Age of Extremes, Truth of Survivors. She is also working on a new book on literary memoirs by major modern Korean authors, a working title of which is Trauma, History and Literary Memoirs in Modern Korean Literature. In this second project, Seung-Hee plans to examine different narrative strategies and their gender and class implications in literary memoirs by such major authors as Hak-Chol Kim, In-Hun Choi, Wan-So Pak, Lim-Hwa Han, and Kyong-Suk Shin. Seung-Hee’s research interests extend to the areas of film studies, children’s literature, travel narratives, environmentalism, and Asian American studies.

A firm believer of practical utilization of theories, Seung-Hee published many translations and criticisms during the past two decades. Her most recent practical activity includes her participation in the "Still Present Pasts: a Multimedia Exhibit on the Legacies of the Korean War (2005, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center; Wellesley Jewett Arts Center)" as its linguistic consultant as well as a co-translation of Pride and Prejudice (2003). A founding member of Korean Women’s Studies Institute in Korea, Seung-Hee spent her Harvard years also as a founding member of Boston Korea Friendship Association as well as a volunteer and board member of Transition House, the first battered women’s shelter in Massachusetts.

For the 2005-2006 academic year, Seung-Hee will serve as a postdoctoral fellow at the Korea Institute. She will present a paper in our colloquium in December and organize a postdoctoral workshop next spring. The Korea Institute congratulates Seung- Hee on her accomplishments and looks forward to her achievements this year and as she continues in her career.