Presented by the George Washington University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Institute for Korean Studies.
The Global Enterprise of Translation:
Translators, Institution, and Market For Korean Literature
Saturday, October 30, 2021
9:00 AM – 12:00 AM EDT | 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM KST
Zoom Event
This year’s colloquium focuses on the translators who have impacted and broadened the scope of Korean literature. What began as an academic enterprise for pedagogical purposes, Korean literature in translation is now a global enterprise reaching audiences beyond the classroom from across the world. In addition to the South Korean government’s establishment of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), publishers, literary agencies, and translators themselves from all over the world have developed their own methods of marketing Korean fiction. However, the growth of global awareness of Korean literature has also reinforced hierarchies and inequities in the literary field in South Korea and abroad, ignoring the diversity and inclusivity of literary production within the country. This year’s colloquium will address these problems and hear from translators and scholars on ways to improve the global enterprise of translating Korean literature.
Registered guests will receive a confirmation email with details for joining the Zoom event.
This event is on the record and open to the public.
The Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium
The Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities Series at the George Washington University provides a forum for academic discussion of Korean arts, history, language, literature, thought and religious systems in the context of East Asia and the world. The colloquium series is made possible by an endowment established by the estate of Hahn Moo-Sook (1918-1993), one of Korea’s most honored writers, to uphold her spirit of openness, curiosity, and commitment to education.
The 29th Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium is organized by the George Washington University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, co-organized by the GW Institute for Korean Studies and co-sponsored by the Korea Foundation.
Honorable Guests
Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She also currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Korean Studies. She is a specialist in gender, law, and emotions in Korean history. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on a book project tentatively entitled Sexual Desire, Crime, and Gendered Subjects: A History of Adultery Law in Korea. She received her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University.
Kwak Hyo Hwan is the current President of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He has a doctoral degree from Korea University‘s Department of Korean Language and Literature. Since 2017, he has been part of the Literary Promotion Policy Committee, which was created under the Culture Ministry to consult on creating policy related to the local literary industry. He has also been the director of the Society of Korean Poets since 2012.
Young-Key Kim-Renaud is Professor Emeritus of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs, previous chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department at GW. She is also currently Senior Advisor to GW Institute for Korean Studies. She is the founder of the annual Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium at GW. Previously, she served as Assistant Program Director for Linguistics at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Kim-Renaud is one of the pioneers in Korean language education, research, and outreach activities in the United States, having begun to teach Korean at Berkeley as a graduate student in early 1964. Since then, she has published 13 books, numerous refereed articles, and invited book chapters on Korean linguistics, Korean literature, the Korean writing system, language and society, language and politics, cross-cultural communications, Korean women in the humanities, Korean cultural history, and current affairs. Dr. Kim-Renaud has received various awards and grants in recognition for her contributions, including a Republic of Korea Jade Order of Cultural Merit in 2006 and the Bichumi Grand Award from Samsung Life Foundation as a Woman of the Year 2008 for Public Service
Speakers
Anton Hur is a literary translator based in Seoul. He is a graduate of the Korea University College of Law and Seoul National University Graduate School and was awarded the title of Person of Distinguished Service to the State in 2002 after serving in the Korean army. His translations include Sang Young Park’s LOVE IN THE BIG CITY (Grove Atlantic), Bora Chung’s CURSED BUNNY (Honford Star), and Ocean Vuong’s NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS (Moonji).
Bruce Fulton is the inaugural occupant of the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. He is the co-translator, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of numerous works of modern Korean fiction; general editor of the Modern Korean Fiction series published by the University of Hawai’i Press; co-author with Youngmin Kwon of What Is Korean Literature? (2020); recipient of a 2018 Manhae Grand Prize in Literature; and editor of the forthcoming Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories (2022). He is the co-recipient, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of several translation awards and grants, including the first National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship for a Korean literary work, and the first residency awarded by the Banff (Canada) International Literary Translation Centre for the translation of a work from any Asian Language. His most recent translations, with Ju-Chan Fulton, are the novels Mina by Kim Sagwa (Two Lines Press, 2018), The Catcher in the Loft by Ch’ŏn Un-yŏng (Codhill Press, 2019), and One Left by Kim Soom (University of Washington Press, 2020).
Jamie Chang is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at Ewha Womans University and the Translation Academy at Literature Translation Institute Korea. She has translated The Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park and Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo.
Jenny Wang Medina is Assistant Professor of Korean Studies in the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University. Her research focuses on questions of national/global cultures, diaspora, multiculturalism, canon formation, and translation. She is currently writing a book manuscript titled Becoming K-orean: South Korea’s Quest for Cultural Distinction. The book examines South Korea’s transformation of Korean culture from a preservationist tradition to a dynamic cosmopolitan culture at the turn of the 21st century through literature, film, and television.
Sophie Bowman is a PhD student in the East Asian Studies department at the University of Toronto. Her translations include Kim Bo-Young’s “I’m Waiting for You” and “On My Way to You” in I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories, Djuna’s “The Second Nanny” published in Clarkesworld, Baek Heena’s picture book Magic Candies, and Looking Back Life Was Beautiful by Grandpa Chan and Grandma Marina.
Sora Kim-Russell is a literary translator based in Seoul. Her recent publications include Pyun Hye-young’s The Law of Lines, Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk, and Kim Un-su’s The Plotters. She has taught literary translation at the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, LTI Korea, and Ewha Womans University.
Moderator
Immanuel Kim is Korea Foundation and Kim-Renaud Associate Professor of Korean Literature and Culture Studies. Prior to working at the George Washington University, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY). Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. His research is on North Korean literature and film, and he has translated a North Korean novel called Friend by Paek Nam-nyong (Columbia University Press, 2020).
