[KS] _Berlin Koreans and Pictured Koreans_ (New Book)

[hoffmann at koreanstudies.com]

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT – BERLIN KOREANS AND PICTURED KOREANS

FRANK HOFFMANN, /BERLIN KOREANS AND PICTURED KOREANS/. KOREANS AND CENTRAL
EUROPEANS: INFORMAL CONTACTS UP TO 1950, EDITED BY ANDREAS SCHIRMER, VOL.
1. VIENNA: PRAESENS, 2015. XII, 241 PAGES, 112 ILLUSTRATIONS. €34.90
PAPER (CA. $38.50), €24.70 PDF (CA. $28).

ISBN: 978-3-7069-0873-3 (print)
ISBN: 978-3-7069-3005-5 (digital edition)

FLYER:
https://goo.gl/zATB1i

AT ONLINE BOOKSTORES:
http://bookbutler.com/compare?isbn=9783706908733
Amazon.com also lists the book (http://amazon.com/dp/3706908735/), but it
seems the UK-based Book Depository delivers it faster, much cheaper, and
worldwide.

_ABOUT THE BOOK:_

The first almost book-length chapter is structured as a series of twelve
biographical sketches of Berlin Koreans: students, professionals,
revolutionaries, etc. living in Berlin in the Wilhelmine, Weimar, and/or
National Socialist eras. While the chapter’s structure is simple, the
issues regarding cultural assimilation, identity, anti-Japanese political
activities, collaboration (with the Japanese and the Nazis), and colonial
modernity and modernism that are  discussed are far more complex. The
study exposes, often in provocative ways, the cultural and political
connections. These links and the insights resulting from them will be
unexpected and disquieting for many readers. Nobody was more surprised than
myself, specifically about the close cooperation with and engagement in
Nazi institutions of many Koreans during the 1930s and 1940s—even within
the core NS institution for race research. In terms of a theoretical
outcome, I am arguing and demonstrating in much detail that (Korean)
colonial modernity, as we name and define it since the 1990s, could in fact
also be found outside the Japanese Imperial Empire—in Berlin—and that
even before the fascist German–Japanese cooperation began in the second
half of the 1930s. What we have here is the creation of “social space”
(in Lefebvre’s terms) that replicates colonial modernity outside the
confines of empire, without any institutional colonial framework in place,
right in the center of the Weimar Republic (which, in fact, still as a
major Western power, brought into existence the first 20th century
postcolonial era in Europe). That again raises questions about the validity
of the colonial modernity concept in itself.

The two shorter essays concern the 1904 Liebig trading card set on Korea
and Emil Nolde’s 1912 oil painting, The Missionary, which depicts a
Korean changsŭng. The first is an example of popular, mass-produced
advertisement art, while the other is a classic example of celebrated
German “high modernism.” These chapters provide an art historical
analysis of these pieces but then twist and turn to go a little beyond
that. (Don’t panic, you won’t feel bored). Thus, this is an analysis
that discusses Germany’s take on colonialism, on modernism, and the
formation of its own identity. But it also questions some of the essential
convictions and certitudes we all have about classical modernism in Europe
(to get to a more horizontal viewpoint with Korean modernism). Some parts
of that discussion extend into times much later than the early 20th
century. I have made a very conscious effort, though, to keep the use of
specialized terminology to a minimum and to make the texts reasonably easy
to read and to follow the discussions of all issues, which are always kept
concrete.

In a nutshell, what are the issues of this book, apart from the
“storylines” of the biographies and sample artworks discussed? Well, I
hope to at least raise some essential questions regarding established
historical and art historical models about colonial modernity, the
relationship between politics and modernism in art and dance, and the
relationship of Western and Korean modernism. The German part of it mostly
highlights the privileged status Nazism bestowed on international
specialists but also scrutinize preconceptions about Germany’s modern
cultural production and the nature of its historic relations to Korea and
Asia.

_KEYWORDS:_

Koreans in Berlin; Koreans in Germany; Koryŏ Student Corps in Germany
留德高麗學友會; colonialism in Korea; colonial modernity; modernism;
collaboration; Korean fascism; Korean revolutionaries; German-Korean
relations; German-Japanese relations; Liebig cards; Emil Nolde; modern art;
art and propaganda; modern Korean dance; Korean national anthem; Berlin
Olympics; Korean studies in Germany; Kim Chung-se (Kimm Chung Se
金重世); An Pong-gŭn 安奉根; Pae Un-sŏng (Unsoung  Pai 裵雲成);
An Ik-t’ae 安益泰; Kuni Masami邦正美 (Pak Yŏng-in  朴永仁); Yi
Kŭng-no (Li Kolu李克魯); Yi Kang-guk 李康國; Chang Kŭk (Paul K.
Chang 張剋); Kim Paek-p’yŏng (Baeckpyeng Kim 金伯枰); Kang
Se-hyŏng 姜世馨; Kim Chun-yŏn 金俊淵); Ko Il-ch’ŏng 高一淸;
Mirok Li 李彌勒.

Thank you for your attention!
Frank Hoffmann
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