a Conference with a Rare Book Workshop
New Perspectives on the
History of Books and Reading
in Korea
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, DECEMBER 7-8, 2022
ORGANIZED BY
SI NAE PARK // EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND CIVILIZATIONS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
SUYOUNG SON // ASIAN STUDIES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Registration for in-person participation is closed.
The rare book workshop on Dec 7 and visit to Houghton Library are in-person only.
The conference on Dec 8 welcomes an online audience via Zoom.
To attend virtually and obtain a link, please click here.
Ever since Maurice Courant, a French diplomat-turned-scholar, published his monumental Bibliographie Coréenne in 1894, much ink has been spilled on the study of books in Korea. But where is the field headed now? In current research on the history of the book, especially in English-language scholarship, the Korean experience is more often than not written out or treated as an aberration: How was it that a country that had developed and widely used the technology for movable metal type printing as early as the thirteenth century had to wait until the turn of the nineteenth century to witness the rise of commercial printing of vernacular-language materials? The vision of “New Perspectives” is to counter such Eurocentric, print-oriented views that have overlooked the historical validity of various non-print forms of the book, as well as the physical instantiation of literacies and practices of writing and reading that flourished in Korea from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries.
“New Perspectives” is committed to twin projects: (1) conducting in-depth bibliographical and physical examinations of original texts, and (2) critically engaging with existing assumptions by which Korea’s book culture has been understood. It is with this twin vision that “New Perspectives” consists of a rare book workshop and a conference and brings together academics, rare book specialists, and librarians.
The rare book workshop brings together a variety of books categorized into four themes: (1) technologies of printing and copying books; (2) books in transnational contexts; (3) multi-script, multi-literate books; and (4) individuals and organizations producing books. Beth McKillop will lead the workshop with Sören Edgren as her discussant. Attendees will have opportunities to have a hands-on and interactive exploration of each and every item.
Ten exciting, wide-ranging research proposals generated by scholars of varying stages in their academic career have responded to the vision of “New Perspectives.” The papers are organized into three panels: “The Book and Domestic Materiality”; “Reading, Readability, and Literacy as Social Practice”; and “The Book as Technology and Intermediary.”
After a roundtable discussion following the conference, the attendees will visit Houghton Library for a tour guided by Peter X. Accardo and to have a viewing of bibliographical artifacts from European traditions led by Ann Blair.
Kuryong Waterfalls
An ink-and-wash painting
by Park Dae Sung
created for
“Park Dae Sung: Ink and Soul
(art exhibit)”
at Harvard University
(Sept 19- Dec 8, 2022)
Image Courtesy of Gana Art Gallery
Chŏngbang Waterfalls
An ink-and-wash painting
by Park Dae Sung
created for
“Park Dae Sung: Ink and Soul
(art exhibit)”
at Harvard University
(Sept 19- Dec 8, 2022)
Image Courtesy of Gana Art Gallery
PROGRAM
(*subject to minor changes)
RARE BOOK WORKSHOP
Wednesday December 7, 2022
Location: Harvard-Yenching Library, 2 Divinity Avenue
2:00-2:15 Welcoming Remarks
Jidong Yang, Librarian of the Harvard-Yenching Library
2:15-4:15 Presentation by Beth McKillop
4:15-4:30 Coffee break
4:30-6:00 Special Lectures
(Yenching Auditorium)
Chair: Suyoung Son
Chung Seunghye
A History of Yŏkhaksŏ, Language Textbooks for Chosŏn Official Interpreters
Lee Min Heui
The Materiality and Visuality of Korean Manuscript Fiction
(Q & A Interpreter: Su-Yeon Seo)
6:00-7:30 Catered dinner
(Invitation only)
Location: Common Room, 2 Divinity Avenue
Chŏn Ilsang 전일상 田日祥 (1700-1753; sobriquet Sŏkch’ŏn 석천 石泉),
a military official of Chosŏn Korea.
Image source:
Munhwajaech’ŏng Kukka munhwa yusan p’otŏl
문화재청 국가문화유산포털
CONFERENCE
Thursday December 8, 2022
Location: CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street
8:30-9:00 Breakfast
(invitation only)
A Welcoming Remark by
Nicholas Harkness, Director of the Korea Institute; Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
9:00-10:30
PANEL I: THE BOOK AND DOMESTIC MATERIALITY
Chair: Thomas Kelly
Discussant: Cynthia Brokaw
Ksenia Chizhova
A Vernacular Miscellany: The Posthumous Biography of Madame Yun
Suyoung Son
Recipe Manuscripts as a Bodily Artifact
Ji-Eun Lee
Domesticity, Women, and Books in 19th– to Early 20th-Century Korea
10:30-10:50 Coffee break
10:50-12:20
PANEL II: READING, READABILITY, AND LITERACY AS SOCIAL PRACTICE
Chair: Deidre Lynch
Discussant: Young Oh
Giovanni Volpe
The Book as a Social Space: Mediating the Written Word in Early Chosŏn Korea
Si Nae Park
Carving Readability: The Mise-en-Page of Block-Printed Vernacular Novels as Interface
Jeonghun Choi
The Korean Book as a Vantage Point of Global Book History: The Translations of Universal History of War and Its Reception
12:20-1:30 Boxed Lunch
1:30-3:30
PANEL III: THE BOOK AS TECHNOLOGY AND INTERMEDIARY
Chair: Melissa McCormick
Discussant: Ann Blair
Graeme Reynolds
Manuscript in an Era of Print, or Print in an Era of Manuscript?: The Example of Hong Manjong’s Tongguk yŏktae ch’ongmok
Hwisang Cho
Messy Writings: Unraveling Korean Manuscript Books
Xin Yu
Books of Prestige: The Booklization of Genealogies in Korea, 1500-1800
Wayne de Fremery
Opportunities for Deep Learning: Early-to-Mid Twentieth-Century Korean Periodicals
3:30-3:45 Coffee break
3:45-5:00 Houghton Library
(Led by Ann Blair with Peter Accardo and Molly Schwartzburg)
Location: Harvard Yard
5:00-6:00 Roundtable Discussion
Beth McKillop, Cynthia Brokaw, Young Oh, Ann Blair, and Mikyung Kang
Chair: Young Oh
Location: Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street
6:00-8:00 Dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club
(invitation only)
Location: 20 Quincy Street