KEC Special Lecture Series Summer 2024 - Classical Korean Literature: Research and Translations
KEC Special Lecture Series Summer 2024 - Classical Korean Literature: Research and Translations
Classical Korean Literature: Research and Translations
The special lecture series „Classical Korean Literature: Research and Translations“ brings to the wider audience new insights into Korean literary heritage and current trends in presenting Classical Korean literature to the international audience. Individual lectures of the series will be held by distinguished scholars within the field of Korean literature of Koryŏ (918–1392) and Chosŏn times (1392–1910), who will introduce their recent publications. Thorsten Traulsen’s translation of Buddha’s biography written in Korean alphabet, Barbara Wall’s analyses of Korean perception of a legendary Chinese monkey, Dennis Wuerthner’s rendition of Koryŏ literati stories and poetry or Elena Kondratyeva’s work on memoirs of Korean queen show a fascinating richness of Korean literary heritage and at the same time indicate recent trends in introducing, translating and marketing this cultural commodity. Talks and following discussions present a rare opportunity to see Korean literature research and translation „in making“; in the course of lectures will be discussed problems presented by the multiscriptual nature of the literary canon written both in Literary Sinitic and Korean alphabet, difficulties of reading the original documents, role of the English as a medium in Korean Studies or strategies to secure funding for such projects and publications.
Overview
1) 14 May 2024
The Moon Reflected in a Thousand River
Presenter:
Dr. Thorsten Traulsen, Ruhr Universität Bochum
Abstract:
Thorsten Traulsen will present his English translation of one of the Korean Buddhist classics Wŏrin ch’ŏngang chi kok 月印千江之曲 (The Moon Reflected in a Thousand Rivers) published by King Sejong in 1449.
About the lecturer:
Within the scope of his PhD studies, Thorsten Traulsen concentrated on the phonology and lexicology of Middle Korean. His disseration "Die lexikologischen und phonologischen Grundlagen der inneren Rekonstruktion im Mittelkoreanischen" (The lexicological and phonological basis for internal reconstruction in Middle Korean) was supervised by Professor Dr. Alexander Vovin (Hawai'i) and awarded in Hamburg, 2008. He has been teaching Middle Korean for several years and is in charge of Korean collection in the faculty library. Besides, he has worked on educational history in Chosŏn. He is also editor of the Korean section of the Hefte für ostasiatische Literatur (iudicium, since issue 2/2005).
2) 21 May 2024
The Dynamic Essence of Transmedia Storytelling - A Graphical Approach to The Journey to the West in Korea
Presenter:
Associate Prof. Dr. Barbara Wall, University of Copenhagen
Abstract:
The Dynamic Essence of Transmedia Storytelling challenges many established truths about popular literary classics by presenting an analysis of sixty Korean variations of The Journey to the West, a set which includes novels and poems, as well as films, comics, paintings, and dance performances dating from the 14th century until today. In contrast to the typical assumption that literary classics like The Journey to the West are stable texts with a single original, Barbara Wall approaches The Journey to the West as a dynamic text comprised of all its variations. She argues that all the creators of such variations, from Korean scholars in the 14th century to “boy bands” like Seventeen in the 21st century, participate in the ongoing story world known as The Journey to the West. Wall employs literary and quantitative analysis, ample graphic visualizations, and in-depth descriptions of classroom games to find new ways to understand the dynamics of transmedia storytelling and popular engagement with story worlds. Her approach opens new frontiers of intertextual analysis to literary scholars and teachers of literature who seek contemporary methods of introducing world literature to new generations of students.
About the lecturer:
Barbara Wall is an assistant professor in Korean Studies at the University of Copenhagen. She has a BA in Japanese Studies and Classical Chinese from Heidelberg University, an MA in Confucian Studies from Sungkyungkwan University and a PhD in Korean Literature from Ruhr University Bochum. She is interested in the circulation, translation, and adaptation of literary narratives in and between Korea, Japan and China. Her first book The Dynamic Essence of Transmedia Storytelling: A Graphical Approach to The Journey to the West in Korea appeared in Brill’s East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture series in 2024.
3) 28 May 2024
Poems and Stories for overcoming Idleness: P’ahan chip by Yi Illo
Presenter:
Assistant Prof. Dr. Dennis Wuerthner, Boston University
Abstract:
Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness is the first complete translation in any Western language of P’ahan chip, the earliest Korean work of sihwa (C. shihua; “remarks on poetry”) and one of the oldest extant Korean sources. The collection was written and compiled by Yi Illo (1152–1220) during the mid-Koryǒ dynasty (918–1392). P’ahan chip features poetry composed in Literary Chinese (the scriptura franca of the premodern East Asian “Sinographic Sphere”) by the author and his friends, which included such literary greats as Im Ch’un (dates unknown) and O Sejae (1133–?). P’ahan chip also contains the work of other writers of diverse backgrounds: Chinese master poets, famous Confucian literati, eminent Buddhist masters, erudite Daoist hermits, Koryŏ kings—as well as long-forgotten lower-level officials, unemployed intellectuals, and rural scholars. The verse compositions are embedded in short narratives by Yi that provide context for the poems. In accordance with the guidelines of the sihwa-genre, these narratives focus primarily on matters relating to poetry while touching on a wide array of subjects such as Korean history and customs; the court and government institutions; official procedures and festivals; Koryǒ foreign-policy and diplomacy; books and the circulation of knowledge; calligraphy and painting; Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist thought; the role of women; and scenic spots and famous buildings. The book opens with an extensive introduction by translator Dennis Wuerthner on Yi Illo and P’ahan chip set against the backdrop of literary and historical developments in Korea and sino-centric East Asia and vital issues relating to Koryŏ politics, society, and culture. Wuerthner’s comprehensive, thought-provoking study is followed by a copiously annotated translation of this important Korean classic.
About the lecturer:
Dennis Wuerthner is assistant professor of East Asian literature in the Department of World Languages and Literatures, Boston University.
4) 04 June 2024
한듕록, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏn (1795–1805): experience of translating River
Presenter:
Associate Professor Dr. Kondratyeva Elena Nikolaevna, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University
Abstract:
The peculiarity of translating Korean medieval texts always involves additional research and obligatory commentary. This lecture aims to share the experience of translating one of the most interesting Korean literary monuments, Hanjunnok (The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏn (1795–1805)), and to describe the principles followed and the difficulties encountered in the translation process, such as interpreting the title, dealing with special vocabulary, and decoding the original text's graphics etc.
About the lecturer:
Elena Kondratyeva is an associate professor at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at the Moscow State University and at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. In 2001 she graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities majoring in Theoretic and Applied Linguistics and in 2005 she obtained her PhD in comparative, historical and typological linguistics. Her research interests include history of the Korean language, Middle and Modern Korean grammar, Korean classical literature. Her publications include Russian translations of the Yongbiŏchŏnga (2011) and Hanjunnok (2020).
Moderator: Prof Dr. Vladimir Glomb
Time & Venue:
Tuesday, May 14th 2024 - June 04th 2024
16:00 - 18:00
Online:
Webex