University of British Columbia, Dr. Christina Yi
“Critical Approaches to ‛Japanese-Language’ Literature:
On the Writings of Kim Sŏkpŏm” (6/28)
Overview
“Language has always been the companion of empire” proclaimed the Spanish scholar Antonio de Nebrija in 1492, and this statement has proven just as true for modern Japan as it did for Europe. Nowhere are these legacies more visible than in the debates and discussions surrounding “Japanese-language literature” (Nihongo bungaku), a term that has been used both as a genre category and as a mode of critical intervention. Its origin can be traced back to the self-identified Zainichi (resident) Korean author Kim Sŏkpŏm. An outspoken critic of Japan’s colonial amnesia, Kim has argued that the Japanese that he employs necessarily differs from that of “native” Japanese speakers because of his acute awareness of Japanese as such, and the fraught history that forced that language upon him and other Zainichi Koreans. In this talk, Dr. Christina Yi will discuss her most recent publication, an English translation of Kim Sŏkpŏm’s Death of a Crow, and the intersecting issues of language ideology and literary canonization that must be considered in any act of translation.
Speaker
Christina Yi（Associate Professor, University of British Columbia / Visiting Associate Professor, Waseda University）
Christina Yi is Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Literature at the University of British Columbia. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her first monograph, Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea, was published by Columbia University Press in 2018. She was also the co-editor for a special issue on Zainichi Korean literature and film for Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture 12 (2019) and the translator for Kim Sŏkpŏm’s Death of a Crow (Karasu no shi, 2022).
Date/Time
June 28, 2023 (Wed.), 15:05~16:45 (JST)
Venue
The Waseda International House of Literature (The Haruki Murakami Library) B1 Floor
Prior Registration Required
*Registration deadline by June 27.
Please register from here to participate.
Lanugage
English
*Lecture is in English /Q&A session in English & Japanese
Prospected Audiences
Faculty members, Researchers, Graduate students, Under-graduate students, General Participants
Organized by
Global Japanese Studies Model Unit, Waseda University Top Global University Project
Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS)
Co-Organized by
The Waseda International House of Literature
Planned by
LEE, Juhee Assistant Professor, Waseda institute for advanced studies, Waseda University
