Panel on South Korean Literature, Film and State-Sponsored Visual Art

By rscc

Please join AAADS and The Center for Korean Studies for a special panel covering modernization, capitalism, globalization, and state power in South Korea from  the perspective of literature, film, and state-sponsored art!

Scene from "The Host"

Scene from “The Host”

When: Thursday, October 24 4-6pm

Where: Barbara Christian Conference Room, 554 Barrows Hall

Panelists: Professor Youngju Ryu, University of Michigan Korean studies; Jisung Kim, UC Berkeley Film Studies; and Yuri Chang, SUNY Binghamton

Professor Ryu: In 1970s South Korea, poet Kim Chi Ha became an international symbol of democracy when he challenged the legtimacy of the military dictatorship. Last year, Kim returned to center stage as an ally of the dictator’s daughter and a mouthpiece of the ultraconservatives who supported her election as South Korea’s president. This talk will explore the changing place of committed literature in the ongoing struggle over the meanings of South Korean modernization.

Dr. Kim: South Korea has often been touted as the quintessential demonstration of the superiority of free market capitalism for ‘developing’ the Global South. This talk addresses the experience of capitalism’s globalization from the vantage point of post-IMF South Korean cinema in such films as “The Host” and “Take Care of My Cat.”

Ms. Chang: This presentation focuses on the politics of representation of power and memory in public space by examining cultural monuments and exhibitions – in particular the art projects sponsored by the South Korean government for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1995 Gwangju Biennale.

South Korean Literature, Film and State-Sponsored Visual Art