[KS] Korea and Koreans as featured in literary works by non-Korean(ist) writers

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear Rüdiger and All:

Then let me be the Korean bride's savior, and 
that of the German language, and the Germans and 
Austrians in general :)

(1)
Rüdiger wrote:
   "odd German, by the way"

The wording of the title was by no means odd in 
German language. In contemporary German you would 
expect "aus" instead of "von"--not so in the 19th 
century and before. Just think of Schiller's 
tragedy:
   Braut von Messina   (Schiller)
There were many operas with similar titles:
   Braut von Damaskus   (Emil Otto)
   Braut von Frascati   (German translation of Italian opera title)
The use of the preposition "von" is here not a 
replacement of the 'lokale Präposition' "aus" but 
can, in English, be translated or understood as 
"of": "Bride of Messina" etc. (or in French 
"Fiancée de Missine").
Those "Braut von ..." titles for operas (and 
obviously ballets) were extremely popular during 
the late 19th century, also in combination with 
country names:
   Braut von Cypern   (Gustav Kulenkampff, after novel by Paul Heyse)
But this is not all:  All the way from medieval 
times to around 1900 you will find that the 
preposition "von" is being used in this 
particular way in German language. Just two weeks 
ago I quoted here Grimmelshausen's 17th century 
novel. He writes for example about "Glas von 
Muran" (= Murano) and not "Glas aus Muran" or 
uses the phrase "die beständigste Farbe von der 
Welt"--yet another example of the various usages 
of "von" in premodern (if not pre-contemporary) 
German--today we would not use any preposition 
here.


(2)
Rüdiger wrote:
   "the costume is actually a 
hanbok <http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html>http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html. 
I
    was afraid to see something more Japanese  (...) "'Sho Gun' (...)."

Yes, that sketch comes indeed very close to how 
men's chôgori and baji looked (not too sure about 
the position of the knot on the chôgori). Of 
course, Korean costumes had been introduced to 
Germany by von Sieboldt in his _Nippon_ series 
(around 1840), then by Ernst Oppert, and by the 
end of the 19th century these costumes were well 
documented and known from various other 
publications (Hesse-Wartegg, etc.). Two years 
before _Die Braut von Korea_ was first put on 
stage, Ernst Zimmermann published a catalog of 
the Hamburg collection of Korean costumes, 
furniture, and other daily life objects 
(_Koreanische Kunst_, Hamburg: Carl Griese, 1895).

What surprises me is Rüdiger Frank's indication 
that some "ignorant perspective" could have been 
expected, some merging of Korea and Japan. That 
really does not strike any chord with me! That 
would have not at all been typical for any 
European country, and also not for German 
speaking countries. German humanities and social 
sciences rather reflect Humboldt's spirit: the 
accuracy and precision used for the construction 
of machines was strongly reflected in the 19th 
century German and Austrian sciences, but also in 
culture in general. What I refer to here are the 
FACTUAL representations of other cultures, that 
is, the mechanical representation of other 
cultures "as facts" (names, locations, 
statistics). As the German and Austrian cases 
show, but not only these, this does not 
necessarily relate to the degree of racism and/or 
an appreciation of other cultures! However, Korea 
was at all times being recognized as a separate 
country with its own culture (in all Europe, I 
think), even while it was occupied by Japan, and 
even in Nazi Germany (at a time Germany and Japan 
were allies). The public perception was not any 
different from this, for those being aware of the 
country's existence, and that had already been so 
during the Weimar Republic and the 19th century.


Best,
Frank Hoffmann








>On a side note, that's what I found remarkable 
>about the 1897 "Die Braut von Korea" ballet (odd 
>German, by the way): the costume is actually a 
>hanbok <http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html>http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html. 
>I was afraid to see something more Japanese, 
>like in the passage quoted below: "energetic 
>Yankee who goes to Korea and finally becomes the 
>Sho Gun." My impression is that this ignorant 
>perspective (Korea, Japan - what's the 
>difference, and why shoudl we care) was the rule 
>rather than the exception. Gosh, even 100 years 
>later Europeans would name Sony and Samsung as 
>big Japanese companies.
>Cheers,
>Rudiger
>

-- 
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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