On April 22, 2021, the GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) hosted another Book Talk Series on Chosŏn Korea, Kinship Novels of Early Modern Korea: Between Genealogical Time and the Domestic Everyday. The event was moderated by Professor Jisoo Kim, Director of GWIKS, and the speaker was Dr. Ksenia Chizhova, Assistant Professor of Korean Literature and Cultural Studies at Princeton University. In this presentation Dr. Chizhova introduced her first book Kinship Novels of Early Modern Korea. The book is situated at the intersection of the history of emotions, family, and scriptural practices in Korea, from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century. This book talk contextualizes lineage novels and the domestic world in which they were read within the patrilineal transformation of the Chosŏn society and the emergence of elite vernacular Korean culture, patronage by elite women.
Dr. Chizhova started her presentation by narrating the first few sentences of her book. She further added that the rise of the lineage novel was due to the flashing out of Korean patrilineal kinship in the 17th century. She also shares more insights into the history of lineage novels, feelings and conflicts of kinship, and snippets from other kinship novels. Dr. Chizhova’s presentation was followed by the Q&A session. The moderator, Dr. Kim and the audience submitted a wide range of questions including, the usage of emotions and affect in the context of the kinship novels, placing of the Korean lineage novels on the early modern Chosŏn context, Dr. Chizhova’s reason for choosing kinship as the main theme of her research, novels on the lives of husbands and sons, etc.
