RAS Lecture Presentation
April 14, 2004
Wednesday 7:30p.m.


”For Internationalization of the Korean Literature”

By Dr. Choi Yearn Hong

The Auditorium of Daewoo Foundation Bldg, 8th Floor
( 대우 재단 빌딩, 강당 8층)




Literature originates from a poet’s hometown and a writer’s country and culture. However, literature has the power to overcome geographical boundaries. Thus, there is a contradiction. How to resolve this contradiction is the task of Korean literature. The highest achievement of any writer is to earn the Nobel prize. It is achieveable. There are many good poets and writers who live in Korea to fulfill the desires of the literary fans in and outside Korea. Poetry has been especially popular in the last two or three decades as we have seen sales of over one million poetry books of several poets.

Achieving the highest goal of Nobel prize requires a certain strategies:

1. Literary works should reflect sentiment that crosses all boundaries to reach the heart of the humanity. For this, poets and writers should travel extensively, live in foreign lands, and learn different cultures. “A frog in a pond” cannot be a good writer.

2. Short stories geared toward foreign readers assembled as a collection should be promoted to the foreign markets. Long novels written about Korean traditional society may not be interesting to foreign readers due to the sheer volume of the work.

3. A group of able translators should be formed. A dozen able translators may make a big difference to the internationalization of Korean literature. Their freedom to choose the literary works should be guaranteed or assured. Their freedom in translating the poet’s and writer’s sentence for foreign readership should be encouraged as well.

4. Korean poets and writers in the United States, European nations, China and Japan should be respected. They can be the frontline of the Korean literature. For example, Chang-Rae Lee, a second-generation writer in the United States, and Hoe-Sung Lee in Japan should be well utilized.

Dr. Choi Yearn Hong received a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Yonsei University and doctorate degree in political science (public administration) from Indiana University in 1972 and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Old Dominion University before he returned to Korea. He was a US Department of Defense faculty fellow (Assistant for Environmental Quality in the Office of the Secretary of Defense), 1981-1983. He is now professor and chairman of environmental policy program at the University of Seoul Graduate School of Urban Sciences. He is a Korea Times columnist covering politics, literature and the environment.