[KS] lost in progress

[Yuh Ji-Yeon]

with all due respect, the responses to Kevin seem to have missed his main 
points, and so I come away from this discussion thread with the distinct 
feeling of having heard several people talking past each other.

Kevin raises some critical questions that need to be seriously addressed 
not only in the field of Korean studies and regarding literature and art, 
but in the arts and  humanities in general. the notion of the universal, 
east/west dichotomy, traditional/modern/avant-garde distinctions, etc. have 
been important categories and concepts for interpreting, analyzing and 
evaluating art, literature, and culture broadly defined. these concepts 
have also served to create and reinforce hierarchies of worth that 
privilege western forms and values. in other words, they emerge from and 
reinforce relationships of power. it is time, i think, to cast around for 
new guiding concepts that do not reinforce tenets that have been central to 
orientalist forms of knowledge production. while certain aspects of 
post-modernism may appeal, that too has been problematic and has failed to 
break away and provide something radically new, at least from the 
perspective of breaking away from orientalist modes.

there is actually quite a bit of literature now that addresses some of 
these concerns. one of my students is reworking her dissertation into a 
book, and she looks at the origins of an Indian dance form, bharata natyam, 
and american modern dance to argue that distinctions between tradition and 
modern do not make sense and have served to privilege one form as high art 
and the other form as merely ethnic dance. she makes a very careful 
argument based on extensive archival research as well as fieldwork within 
dance communities. it's the kind of scholarship that we are likely to see 
more of, and that we ought to encourage.

best,
ji-yeon

At 11:39 PM 2004.10.24, you wrote:
>Leaving aside the question of whether it is safe to assume that anything 
>is a "universal phenomenon", (that is just too big a ball of wax) and 
>leaving aside an East -vs- West division of the world which is perhaps the 
>most bogus false dichotomy in history....
>
>I would just point out that i was not questioning whether cultures other 
>than our own value innovation. That the other cultures you mention value 
>what they might see as "progress" is clear. I was raising the possibility 
>that you were putting to much of a premium on innovation as a value in 
>art, in general. Additionally there is the whole question of what is and 
>constitutes artistic "progress" (and the related notion of "progress" in 
>art as being depicted as linear, and who decides what progress is, etc.) 
>The very notion of artistic, aesthetic, and historical progress is 
>problematic. These issue seem to me paramount in Korean Arts, and it is 
>interesting to me to see how certain artists address them in their work 
>and talk about them (I think here of some of what Hwang Byoung-gi has had 
>to say in some of his interviews).
>
>Again, i ask, do we listen to the Rite of Spring, Miles Davis, Ornette 
>Coleman, read Virginia Wolff, Yi Sang, etc., etc. & co. , only because 
>they represent progress and caused a ruckus and we can tell anecdotes 
>about how hard it was for them to get publish, performed, etc. ... or are 
>there other values we hold, or intrinsic qualities in these works that 
>cause these pieces to resonate? Or do these works live on only because 
>everyone recognizes your "fundamental fact"? The only (or in your words 
>*exact*) reason they are "in the canon" is because they broke new ground. 
>I don't want works excluded from "the canon" because they are radical or 
>subversive. I also don't want works that are not "radical" excluded 
>because the they didn't ruffle the prerequisite number of feathers. You 
>seemed to suggest that a work was only worthy, if it was radical. If that 
>was true huge tracts of Korean dances, musics, and poems, (for example) 
>would have to be purged from the books, as would largish swaths of 
>"western classical" music and "western" literature ... Also, implied is 
>that pieces that are not innovative (per se) are never excluded because 
>they are too conservative. This happens too.
>
>As a composer, and an "avant-guard" (yuck!) one at that, i am in the 
>ironic position of feeling like i often have to defend, artists whose work 
>is not confrontational, or works that are made up entirely of things "that 
>have been done before." This is one of the things that leads to the 
>appropriation of non-western art forms, for example.....
>
>I once asked a very well known and established composer why he worked with 
>the music and instruments of Tibet. I expected that he would say something 
>beautiful about the sounds of the instruments, or the performance 
>practices, or how the culture had resonated with him, or his deep regard 
>for certain traditions, etc.... but no.... his answer was this (i'll 
>remember this forever) " I do it because it hasn't been done before." 
>So... there you go... when novelty comes first and foremost things can get 
>funky.....
>
>One of the things that living in Korea for the better part of a decade has 
>done for me (that coupled with an obsession with certain Korean art forms 
>*^-^* ... ), is that it has made me question some of the very fundamental 
>notions i once held about art. But perhaps this has gotten all a bit too 
>off topic since your discussion of this was really in service of another 
>point, so now i have veered somewhat off course, so i'll let it drop... 
>but since this is the Korean Studies "Discussion" list, i hope you'll 
>indulge...
>
>back to your regularly scheduled programming.....
>
>-kevin--
>
>
>
>On Oct 24, 2004, at 9:57 AM, J.Scott Burgeson wrote:
>
>>Especially within the modern period, aesthetic
>>progress and evolution has always gone hand-in-hand
>>with innovation and transgression of aesthetic
>>categories. This is a universal phenomenon and not an
>>imposition of so-called elitist Western values upon an
>>Eastern cultural context. Many Korean, Japanese and
>>Chinese artists, writers, etc. happen to value
>>innovation, too, and it's rather condescending and
>>reactionary to argue otherwise, in my opinion...
>

Yuh, Ji-Yeon
Assistant Professor of History
Associate Director of Asian American Studies
Northwestern University
Harris 202
1881 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208 USA
j-yuh at northwestern.edu
1-847-467-6538
fax: 1-847-467-1393
[The Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea---<www.asck.org> ]