Translation, Journalism, and Modern Literature in 1920s Korea

Translation, Journalism, and Modern Literature in 1920s Korea

Dr. Heekyoung Cho - Postdoctoral Associate, Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Room 202, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

Heekyoung Cho’s paper takes up Hyon Chin gon’s (1900-43) adaptation of a Chekhov short story. It demonstrates both the process of Hyon’s creative engagement with Chekhov in the mid-1920s, and also shows the interpenetration of translation and creation, and literary and journalistic discourse at the time. In particular, Suni, Hyon’s female protagonist, who is a child bride, burns down her husband’s house to escape her unendurable marriage with an older man. Through this character, Hyon was able to link female arson with resistance to the institution of young marriage, which was a hotly debated issue at the time. I argue that the character of Suni, portrayed as a sympathetic criminal, went on to influence journalistic discourse about female arson in the late 20s and early 30s, showing how the close intertwining of literature and journalism in the 1920s made literature a dynamic and direct intervention in the present.

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