Abstract:

Im Hinblick auf das veränderte Medienumfeld versucht die Literaturforschung, Forschungsthemen zu erweitern und verschiedene Forschungsmethoden zu erproben. In diesem Kontext wird der Vortrag eine empirische Theorie der Literatur kurz vorstellen und diese auf die Forschung der Rezeption von Hermann Hesse in Korea anzuwenden. Dafür wird die Aufmerksamkeit auf die textbezogenen Handlungen, nicht auf die Textinterpretationen gelegt, wobei der Konstruktivismus als eine erkenntnistheoretische Grundlage herangezogen wird. Mit dem Konstruktivismus wird die Grundlage gelegt, um die Phänomene rund um die Literatur zu erfassen, indem die literarische Wirklichkeit als Wissen oder Erfahrung definiert wird, die Teilnehmer an den literarischen Handlungen kognitiv teilen. Insbesondere durch die Untersuchung literarischer Phänomene oder literarischer Akte (Produktion, Vermittlung, Rezeption und Verarbeitung) wird ermöglicht, Verhaltensweisen in Bezug auf bestimmte Autoren und Werke zu analysieren.

Vor diesem Hintergrund wird die empirische Theorie der Literatur (ETL) stärker mitberücksichtigt, um den literarischen Stellenwert von Hesse in Korea im 21. Jahrhundert zu untersuchen. Diese Theorie bietet eine Grundlage für die empirische Analyse und Bewertung von Akten der Produktion, Vermittlung, Rezeption und Verarbeitung innerhalb des literarischen Systems (Autor, Verlag, Buchhandlungen und Internet-Buchhandlungen, Leseverhalten, Internet-Cafés, Leserberichte, Übersetzung, Übersetzungskritik, Literaturkritik, Interpretation). Aber empirische Arbeit ist schwer durchzuführen, da sie viel Zeit und finanzielle Unterstützung erfordert. Dies führt dazu, sich auf die Rezeption der Werke von Hermann Hesse (derzeit die meistgelesenen) <Unterm Rad> oder <Demian> zu konzentrieren bzw. beschränken, wobei die Leserbewertung von Online-Buchhandlungen im Mittelpunkt steht. Damit wird eine Möglichkeit geboten, den Stellenwert eines bestimmten Schriftstellers und dessen Werks wie Hesse in Korea im 21. zu aktualisieren und ihn für Literaturerziehung in Betrachtung zu ziehen.

Biography:            Prof. Dr. Yong Hyun KIM

Professor in der Abteilung Germanistik und Leiter des Instituts für German Studies, Korea Universität in Seoul

Bachelor und Master: Germanistik, Korea Universität in Seoul

Promotion: Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft, Germanistik, Medienwissenschaft in Siegen

Forschungsschwerpunkte: Kultur, Lesen, Evolutionäre Psychologie

Sang Pil Jin (Copenhagen University)
Surviving Imperial Intrigues: Korea’s Struggle for Neutrality amid Empires, 1882-1907

Abstract

This seminar focuses on my recent monograph, which sheds light on the following topic: how successful Korean neutralization could have radically transformed the equation of balance of power in East Asia and change major powers’ strategic calculus of the region. While neutralisation is the focal point of the project, it also analyses Korea’s multi-faceted relations with China, Japan, Russia, the U.S., and to a lesser degree, Britain, and France. Within the overall framework of Sino-Japanese, Anglo-Russian, and Russo-Japanese rivalries, this work encompasses the critical factors like international agreements and factional conflicts that lurked behind Korea’s journey towards neutralization. Furthermore, this book seeks to provide an analytical lens to understand Korea’s intricate diplomatic relations with major powers, a periphery state in the international system during the imperialist era. Available in English for the first time, this work expands on Korea’s often contentious relations with major powers and their rivalries surrounding the country for three decades. With the timespan stretching from 1882 to 1907, this project entails a meticulous analysis of published and unpublished primary sources from Asia, Europe, and North America. 

Biography

Sangpil Jin specialises in modern Korean history, diplomatic history, imperial history and international relations of East Asia. He obtained a PhD in Korean Studies at the School of Oriental Studies, the University of London. In addition to the monograph, his works have appeared on Acta Koreana, The International History Review, Diplomacy & Statecraft and European Journal of Korean Studies. Currently, he serves as Assistant Professor in Korean Studies at the University of Copenhagen. 

Youngmi Kim (Edinburgh University)

The 2022 Presidential Elections in South Korea: The Politics of Resentment and Revenge Confirms
Older Trends and Cleavages and Reveals New Ones

Abstract:

The March 2022 presidential elections marked the end of an acrimonious campaign, mostly devoid of substantive policy discussion. Voters’ preferences fluctuated heavily during the campaign, making the outcome uncertain until the very end. The two leading candidates, Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party and Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, were party outsiders with no prior political experience in the National Assembly. Yoon won by less than 1 percent of the vote, with the last-minute coalition with the third candidate Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Party in all likelihood tilting the balance in his favor. The elections were defined by deepening inequalities in Korean society which have fueled popular resentment against the elites and growing anger, especially among the youth, over the lack of job opportunities and fairness in the labor market. This article contends that the recent elections confirmed long-term trends prevalent in South Korean politics, such as the personalization of politics and intra-party factionalism, as well as the centrality of pre-electoral coalitions. In addition, gender, generation, and class have emerged as new cleavages in the past couple of decades, replacing older political cleavages such as region and ideology. The new administration, currently leading a minority government with 109 seats while the opposition Democratic Party is having 168 seats in the National Assembly as of May 2022, faces substantial domestic challenges at home, including the need to steer a post-pandemic economic recovery. Internationally, it will need to navigate a complex and fraught environment, marked by a major global geopolitical crisis such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as increasing China-US rivalry, and renewed tensions with North Korea.

Dr Youngmi Kim is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh (UK). Her recent publications include ‘Mirroring misogyny in Hell Chosŏn. Megalia, Womad, and Korea’s feminism in the age of digital populism’, European Journal of Korean Studies, 2021), and ‘Mandalay, Myanmar: The remaking of a South-East Asian Hub in a Country at the Crossroads’ (Cities, 2018). She is also the editor of Korea's quest for economic democratization. Globalization, polarization and contention (Palgrave, 2018) and the author of The Politics of Coalition in Korea: Between Institutions and Culture (Routledge, 2011).

Road Maliangkay (Australian National University)

Pressing Deadlines Punching Clocks: Matters of Time in Colonial Korea

Abstract:
While time is commonly considered a universal, objective a fact of life, it a is also very much a political tool. Tied to people's understanding of their role in society, it is a way of establishing order by coordinating actions and events.
The political aspects of time management explain why notions of time differ considerably, not only between
cultures, but also within the same culture between people of different classes, ages, and genders. For my current
research project, I study the introduction of time management systems in Korea under Japanese colonial
rule. I explore the new calendars and holidays, and examine the impact of hourly pay and punctuality on
workers, the general public, and tourists. Many changes in the workplace were under girded by the fast growing
appeal of a capitalist cosmopolitanism and the symbolism of timepieces. How were the new time systems and
concepts promoted and adopted? What forms of resistance did they encounter, and why? While answers to these
questions are likely to foreground the experiences of urbanites, where possible I seek to incorporate also the
experiences of the rural population.

Bio:
Roald Maliangkay is Associate Professor of Korean Studies in the College of Asia and the Pacific, and President of the Korean Studies Association of Australasia. Fascinated by the factors driving fandom, the mechanics of cultural policy, and the convergence of major cultural phenomena, he analyses cultural industries, performance, and consumption in Korea from the early twentieth century to the present. He is author of Broken Voices: Postcolonial Entanglements and the Preservation of Korea's Central Folksong Traditions (University of Hawaii Press, 2017), and co editor of K-pop: The International Rise of the Korean Music Industry (Routledge, 2015).

Jeehye Kim (Salzburg University)

Anthropological Photography as Colonial Visual Strategy:
The Photo Series of the "Archaeological-historical Expeditions"
from the Archive of the Japanese Colonial Government of Korea
(Language in German with English translation)

Abstract:
The anthropological photographs from the archive of the former Japanese colonial government in Korea (chōsen sōtokufu) were created as part of the "archaeological-historical expeditions" (kosekichōsa) in the 1910s and in the guise of science within a colonial-ideological context. These photographs illustrate a scientific colonial impetus to create "ideological knowledge' of race by means of photography. From a perspective of art and
photography history, this lecture focuses on this research object, which has hardly been examined in its whole corpus of approximately 1.000 photographs, and the main question: What exactly in these photographs generates those racializing and ideological visual formulas? How does a colonial visual strategy become apparent in these photographs? It will also be discussed why these photo series from the East Asian empire represent an incomparable example for a transcultural hybrid from a global constellation of the colonial era.

Bio:
Jeehye Kim studied photography at the Kaywon School of Art & Design (today: Kaywon University of Art & Design), history and European and American art history at the Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität. Since 2021, she is working on her PhD project "Anthropological Photography as a Colonial Visual Strategy" from a perspective of transcultural art and photo history at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg. Her research interests include scientific colonialism, photography in science, portrait photography, and transcultural art history.