[KS] 96th Yonsei-KF Korean Studies Forum (Hyuk-Rae Kim, Yonsei University)

[Yonsei-KF Korean Studies Forum]

The Korean Studies Program and the Korea Foundation would like to
invite you to attend the 96th Yonsei-KF Korean Studies Forum.

Title: Sensationalism in 'New Tendency' Fiction
Speaker: Kimberly Chung, PhD Candidate, University of California, San Diego
Date: Thursday, November 19
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Room 702, New Millennium Hall, Yonsei University
No RSVP required. For directions, please refer to
http://gsis.yonsei.ac.kr/html/content.asp?code=001007.

Questions? Contact kimhall at yonsei.ac.kr or at 010-4800-4895

We hope to see you next week Thursday.

Sincerely,

Hyuk-Rae Kim
hyukrae at yonsei.ac.kr
Professor of Korean Studies
Graduate School of International Studies
Yonsei University

abstract: This paper examines “New Tendency” works from 1924-1927.
Typically known for vivid imagery and thematic concentration on
poverty, “New Tendency” literature is considered to be the forerunner
to socialist realist texts exhibiting Marxist materialism.  Rather
than considering these texts for a “lack” of socialist realism, I
would like to understand this literary trend within a broader
development of realism and network of influences: developing print
capitalism, changing perceptions of language, readership, visual
culture and emotive form.  Keeping in mind the context of Japanese
colonialism that presupposes importation of Western enlightenment,
socialist, emotive ideas that assisted the popularity of this form, I
examine how “New Tendency” works help us understand the development of
the realist genre in the Korean context.  The sensational language in
these texts is not exclusive of realism, but reveals realism’s inner
contradictions, bringing to mind the authors’ emergent desires to
portray “truth” beyond language, but also to appeal to a community of
readers.

bio: Kimberly Chung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Literature Department
at the University of California, San Diego.  She received her B.A.
(2004) in Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University.
Currently in Korea as a Korea Foundation Field Research Fellow,
Kimberly’s main research interests are modern Korean literature,
proletarian literature during the colonial period, Literary and
Cultural History, and Postcolonial literature and Cultural Studies.