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--></style><title>Re: [KS] Korea and Koreans as featured in literary
works b</title></head><body>
<div>Dear Rüdiger and All:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Then let me be the Korean bride's savior, and that of the German
language, and the Germans and Austrians in general :)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>(1)</b></div>
<div>Rüdiger wrote:</div>
<div> "odd German, by the way"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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:</div>
<div> Braut von Messina (Schiller)</div>
<div>There were many operas with similar titles:</div>
<div> Braut von Damaskus (Emil Otto)</div>
<div> Braut von Frascati (German translation of
Italian opera title)</div>
<div>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").</div>
<div>Those "Braut von ..." titles for operas (and obviously
ballets) were extremely popular during the late 19th century, also in
combination with country names:</div>
<div> Braut von Cypern (Gustav Kulenkampff, after
novel by Paul Heyse)</div>
<div>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<b> von</b> Muran" (= Murano) and not
"Glas aus Muran" or uses the phrase "die beständigste
Farbe<b> von</b> 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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>(2)</b></div>
<div>Rüdiger wrote:</div>
<div> "the costume is actually a hanbok <a
href="http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html"
>http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html</a>. I</div>
<div> was afraid to see something more Japanese
(...) "'Sho Gun' (...)."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Yes, that sketch comes indeed very close to how men's<i>
chôgori</i> and<i> baji</i> looked (not too sure about the position of
the knot on the<i> chôgori</i>). 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).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div>Frank Hoffmann</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>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 <a
href="http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html"
>http://www.bildindex.de/obj07053790.html</a>. 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.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Cheers,</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Rudiger<br>
</blockquote>
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<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>--------------------------------------<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://koreaweb.ws</div>
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