Tweet
World Literature Forum Kicks Off in Seoul
Korea Times
May 23, 2005
For three days starting tomorrow, Seoul will become a crucible of
thought and ideas over an everlasting question: ``What can literature
do for world peace?''
The Second Seoul International Forum for Literature, to be held at the
Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, will bring 19 of the world's
literary giants together from 12 nations, as well as some 60 Korean
writers, to seek an answer to the challenging question.
Participants will include Nobel Prize laureate Kenzaburo Oe, French
philosopher Jean Baudrillard and Gary Snyder, an American poet well
known for his ``environmental poetry.'' Also present will be Margaret
Drabble, the English novelist who wrote ``The Red Queen,'' based on
the story of Choson princess.
Their Korean counterparts are also heavyweights including Baek
Nak-cheong, professor emeritus of Seoul National University; Yu
Jong-ho, professor emeritus of Yonsei University; Hyun Gi-young,
president of the Korean Culture & Arts Association; Hwang Seok-young,
novelist; Choi Jang-jip, professor of Korea University; Bok Geo-il,
novelist; Ko Un, poet; and Hwang Ji-woo, poet.
Hosted by the Daesan Foundation and the Korean Culture & Arts
Foundation, the forum is also expected to announce a ``Seoul Peace
Declaration'' on Friday during a visit by the participants to the
truce village on the border with North Korea.
``The declaration will address the broad issues of world peace rather
than mention a specific issue, such as the problems on the Korean
peninsula,'' the organizing committee chairman Kim U-chang said during
a press conference early this month.
Under the overarching theme of ``Writing for Peace,'' the forum will
deal with 13 subcategories: Human Values and Political Change; The
Idea of Perpetual Peace; East Asian Ideas of World Order; Ideals of
Peace in the Korean Tradition; Power, Human Values and Political
Order; Dictatorships, Wars andPeace; Peace and Difference: Gender,
Race, Religion ; Literature and Human Universality; Technological
Change and the Globalization of Communication; Varieties of Modernity
in the World; Varieties of Western Modernity; Commonality of EastAsian
Cultures; Past, Present and Future; Poverty and the Stratification of
the World; Ecology, Sustainable Growth and Literature.
``The Forum will also provide an invaluable opportunity for Korean
literature to finally begin staking its claim on the international
scene, making possible a true intellectual exchange between Korean
authors and some of the literary world's best and brightest,'' the
organizer said in its statement.
The forum will provide simultaneous translation in Korean, English,
French or each relevant author's native tongue throughout the
forum. Each author will also hold book readings, lectures, and smaller
symposiums in universities, media outlets and publishers. The
organizers will also broadcast its proceedings live on its homepages,
www.seoulforum.org and www.daesan.or.kr.
The Daesan Foundation plans to compile all papers presented at the
forum into a volume and publish it afterward in Korean and in English.
The first Seoul International Forum was held in 2000 under a theme of
``Writing Across Boundaries.'' Then Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka
and French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu visited Seoul.
For more information on this year's forum, contact the organizers at
the homepages or (02) 725-5418.
The following are the 19 foreign participants of the Seoul
International Forum for Literature. - ED.
Kenzaburo Oe
Japanese novelist
Oe's works are rooted in traditional stories and myths, but are
related to life in the modern world, such as ``The Silent Cry''
(1967). The Nobel Prize-winning author completed the publication of
his trilogy ``The FlamingGreen Tree'' in 1995, just after he received
the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature. His next novel was ``Somersault''
(2003). In the 1970s, he campaigned against the imprisonment of the
Korean pro-democratic poet Kim Ji-ha. Nowadays, he is critical of the
Japanese government's drift toward extreme nationalism.
Robert Hass
American poet
Poet laureate Hass has shown great interest in the poets of Asia and
is particularly noted for his admiration of work of the Korean poet Ko
Un. He currently teaches English Literature at U.C. Berkeley and
collaborates closely with Gary Snyder and other writers on
environmental issues. His books of poetry include ``Sun Under Wood''
(1996), ``Human Wishes'' (1989), ``Praise'' (1979), and ``Field
Guide'' (1973). He is currently a Chancellor of The Academy of
American Poets.
Shigehiko Hasumi
Japanese critic
Hasumi is famed as a film critic, critic of symbolic culture and
specialist in French literature. He has served as president of the
University of Tokyo, where he is now a professor emeritus. His
publications include ``The Invention of Mediocrity,'' ``Antitheory of
the Japanese Language,'' ``Mnemonic Devices in Cinema'' and ``Film
Lunatics: Here, There, and Everywhere.'' He has deeply influenced
major Japanese film directors such as Hideo Nakata, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
and Shinji Aoyama.
Tibor Meray
Hungarian novelist and journalist
Meray worked in North Korea as a military news correspondent during
the Korean War. He spent 14 months there and witnessed the signing of
the 1953 Armistice at Panmunjom, where he will visit again on
Friday. After the 1956Hungarian Uprising, he took refuge in Paris
where he currently heads the Hungarian Human Rights Commission. Among
his main publications are ``Reporting From Korea'' and ``The Truth of
Germ Warfare.''
Orhan Pamuk
Turkish novelist
Pamuk's first novel, ``Cevdet Bey and His Sons'' (1982), won the Orhan
Kemal Novel Prize. His historical novel ``The White Castle'' (1985),
extended his reputation abroad. Other works include ``New Life''
(1995), ``My Name Is Red'' (2001), and ``Snow'' (2004). His novels are
rich with allusion to old Sufi stories and traditional Islamic
tales. He has recently published a book about Istanbul, a city that
fascinates him. His books are now translated into 20 languages.
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Kenyan novelist, essayist and playwright
Ngugi made his debut as a novelist with ``Weep Not, Child'' (1964). It
was the first novel in English to be published by an East African
author. The transition from colonialism to post-colonialism and the
crisis of modernityhave been central issues in Ngugi's writings. In
1980, Ngugi published the first modern novel written in an African
language, rejecting the use of English. He is a professor at the
University of California at Irvine.
Margaret Drabble
British novelist, biographer and critic
The former actress at the Royal Shakespeare Company at
Stratford-upon-Avon published her first novel, ``A Summer Birdcage''
in 1963. Her novels since then include a trilogy of ``The Radiant
Way'' (1987), ``A Natural Curiosity'' (1989) and ``The Gates of
Ivory'' (1991). After attending the first Seoul International Forum in
2000, she wrote and published ``The Red Queen'' (2005), inspired in
part by the tragic memoirs of an 18th-century Korean crown princess.
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio
French novelist
Between 1967 and 1970, Le Clezio mainly lived with a tribe of Embera
Indians in the Panamanian jungles. He then taught literature at the
University of New Mexico and translated Native American myths. The
author of over 30 books, including ``La Fievre'' (1965, Fever), ``Le
Deluge'' (1966, The Flood), ``L'extase Materielle'' (1967, The
Material Ecstasy), ``Chercheur d'Or'' (1985, Gold Seeker), ``Desert''
(1987) and ``Et La Quarantaine'' (1995, Quarantine). His latest novel
is ``Revolutions'' (2003).''
Luis Sepulveda
Chilean novelist
Sepulveda was imprisoned in 1979 by the Pinochet regime while still a
student for over two years. In exile, he took part in a UNESCO
research project on the impact of colonization on the Amazonian
Indians. The result was his first novel, ``Un Viejo que leia Novelas
de Amor (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories).'' Other works include
``Diario de un Killer Sentimental (Diary ofa Sentimental Killer),''
``Nombre de Torero (Name of a Bullfighter)'' and ``Mundo de Fin Del
Mundo (World at the End of the World).''
Jean Baudrillard
French sociologist, cultural critic and postmodern theorist
Baudrillard is one of France's leading thinkers and a living
legend. Some suggest that his thought has shifted ``from the
post-Marxist (1968-71), to the socio-linguistic (1972-77), to the
techno-prophetic.'' In recent years he has become best known as
prophet of the implosion of meaning that attends the postmodern
condition. He is currently a professor at the European Graduate School
in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
Robert Coover
American novelist
Coover's first novel, ``The Origin of Brunists,'' won the 1966 William
Faulkner Award. He is widely regarded as one of America's most
influential living writers, author of some 15 groundbreaking books of
fiction, including ``The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.,''
``J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (1968),'' ``Spanking the Maid (1981),''
``Ghost Town (1998)'' and ``Stepmother (2004).'' He has been lauded as
an ``old school postmodernist.'' The New York Times Book Review has
called him the ``master of hypertext.''
Masao Miyoshi
American thinker and essayist
Professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, Masao
Miyoshi has long been a controversial, prominent figure in Japanese
studies and in American academia in general. Some of his recent works
include reflections on the humanities in an increasingly capitalist
university. Major works include ``Accomplices of Silence: The Modern
Japanese Novel (1975),'' ``Japan Is Not Interesting (2000)'' and
``Ivory Tower in Escrow (2000).''
Erling Kittelsen
Norwegian poet and novelist
Kittelsen studied philosophy before he published his first volume of
poems, ``Vile fugler (Wild Birds, 1970).'' His writings are not only
read but also widely discussed and utilized by other artists,
independent theater groups and students. He is currently involved in a
number of projects designed to translate poems written in Chinese,
Arabic, Latvian and other languages into Norwegian. His plays include
``Abiriels l©ªve (Abiriel's Lion, 1988)'' and ``Pa himmelen (In
Heaven, 2000).''
Mo Yan
Chinese novelist
Born as Guan Moye in 1956 in rural Shandong, northeastern China, he
has adopted the nom de plume Mo Yan, meaning ``don't speak'' in
Chinese. He hashad nine novels and over 70 short stories published in
the past 22 years, quitea number of which have been translated into a
number of languages. The film version of the novel ``Red Sorghum'' won
first prize in Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in
1988. He is considered to be one of the most talented and interesting
modern Chinese writers.
Gary Snyder
American poet
Between working as a logger, a trail-crew member, and a seaman on a
Pacific tanker, Snyder studied Oriental languages at Berkeley (1953-6)
and was associated with Beat writers such as Ginsberg and Kerouac. He
also lived inJapan (1956-64), later studying Buddhism there. He now
teaches literature and ``wilderness thought'' at the University of
California at Davis. He has been described as an eco-poet and an
eco-warrior. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975 for ``Turtle
Island.''
Thomas Brussig
German novelist and dramatist
After six years working as a construction worker, as well as a museum
porter and dishwasher, Brussiq began to study sociology before going
on to study drama and film. He is one of Germany's most visible
post-unification writers. His novelistic account of the fall of the
Berlin Wall, ``Helden wie Wir (1995, Heroes Like Us),'' has been
adapted into an award-winning stage play and film, and translated into
numerous languages.
Wolf Biermann German poet and dramatist
As a university student in East Germany, Biermann started to write
poems, which did not adhere to the individual demands of
socialism. Subsequently, his following works could only be published
in the West, including his first volume of poetry ``Die Drahtharfe
(1965, The Wire Harp).'' In 1976, while Biermann was on a concert tour
in West Germany, he was deprived of his citizenship, sparking a
protest that is often considered the beginning of the end of East
Germany.
Vera Grigorievna Galaktionova
Russian novelist
Born in 1948, Galaktionova's works focus on Chernobyl, on regional
disputes such as that in Karabakh (along the frontier between
Azerbaijan and Armenia), the divisions within the spiritual unity of
Russia, the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union and
hostilities between different ethnic groups, investigating the
historical mechanisms underlying these social divisions. Her main
works include ``The Mighty Cross,'' ``The Winged House,'' ``On Buyan
Island'' and ``Quiet Night.''
Bei Dao
Chinese Poet
Zhao Zhenkai was born in 1949 in Beijing. His pen name Bei Dao,
literally meaning ``North Island,'' was suggested by a friend as a
reference to his provenance from northern China and his typical
solitude. Writing in free verse, Bei Dao is best known for intensely
compressed images and cryptic style. Among the English translations of
his works are ``Old Snow'' (1991), ``Landscape Over Zero'' (1996) and
``Unlock'' (2000).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Korea Times
May 23, 2005
For three days starting tomorrow, Seoul will become a crucible of
thought and ideas over an everlasting question: ``What can literature
do for world peace?''
The Second Seoul International Forum for Literature, to be held at the
Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, will bring 19 of the world's
literary giants together from 12 nations, as well as some 60 Korean
writers, to seek an answer to the challenging question.
Participants will include Nobel Prize laureate Kenzaburo Oe, French
philosopher Jean Baudrillard and Gary Snyder, an American poet well
known for his ``environmental poetry.'' Also present will be Margaret
Drabble, the English novelist who wrote ``The Red Queen,'' based on
the story of Choson princess.
Their Korean counterparts are also heavyweights including Baek
Nak-cheong, professor emeritus of Seoul National University; Yu
Jong-ho, professor emeritus of Yonsei University; Hyun Gi-young,
president of the Korean Culture & Arts Association; Hwang Seok-young,
novelist; Choi Jang-jip, professor of Korea University; Bok Geo-il,
novelist; Ko Un, poet; and Hwang Ji-woo, poet.
Hosted by the Daesan Foundation and the Korean Culture & Arts
Foundation, the forum is also expected to announce a ``Seoul Peace
Declaration'' on Friday during a visit by the participants to the
truce village on the border with North Korea.
``The declaration will address the broad issues of world peace rather
than mention a specific issue, such as the problems on the Korean
peninsula,'' the organizing committee chairman Kim U-chang said during
a press conference early this month.
Under the overarching theme of ``Writing for Peace,'' the forum will
deal with 13 subcategories: Human Values and Political Change; The
Idea of Perpetual Peace; East Asian Ideas of World Order; Ideals of
Peace in the Korean Tradition; Power, Human Values and Political
Order; Dictatorships, Wars andPeace; Peace and Difference: Gender,
Race, Religion ; Literature and Human Universality; Technological
Change and the Globalization of Communication; Varieties of Modernity
in the World; Varieties of Western Modernity; Commonality of EastAsian
Cultures; Past, Present and Future; Poverty and the Stratification of
the World; Ecology, Sustainable Growth and Literature.
``The Forum will also provide an invaluable opportunity for Korean
literature to finally begin staking its claim on the international
scene, making possible a true intellectual exchange between Korean
authors and some of the literary world's best and brightest,'' the
organizer said in its statement.
The forum will provide simultaneous translation in Korean, English,
French or each relevant author's native tongue throughout the
forum. Each author will also hold book readings, lectures, and smaller
symposiums in universities, media outlets and publishers. The
organizers will also broadcast its proceedings live on its homepages,
www.seoulforum.org and www.daesan.or.kr.
The Daesan Foundation plans to compile all papers presented at the
forum into a volume and publish it afterward in Korean and in English.
The first Seoul International Forum was held in 2000 under a theme of
``Writing Across Boundaries.'' Then Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka
and French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu visited Seoul.
For more information on this year's forum, contact the organizers at
the homepages or (02) 725-5418.
The following are the 19 foreign participants of the Seoul
International Forum for Literature. - ED.
Kenzaburo Oe
Japanese novelist
Oe's works are rooted in traditional stories and myths, but are
related to life in the modern world, such as ``The Silent Cry''
(1967). The Nobel Prize-winning author completed the publication of
his trilogy ``The FlamingGreen Tree'' in 1995, just after he received
the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature. His next novel was ``Somersault''
(2003). In the 1970s, he campaigned against the imprisonment of the
Korean pro-democratic poet Kim Ji-ha. Nowadays, he is critical of the
Japanese government's drift toward extreme nationalism.
Robert Hass
American poet
Poet laureate Hass has shown great interest in the poets of Asia and
is particularly noted for his admiration of work of the Korean poet Ko
Un. He currently teaches English Literature at U.C. Berkeley and
collaborates closely with Gary Snyder and other writers on
environmental issues. His books of poetry include ``Sun Under Wood''
(1996), ``Human Wishes'' (1989), ``Praise'' (1979), and ``Field
Guide'' (1973). He is currently a Chancellor of The Academy of
American Poets.
Shigehiko Hasumi
Japanese critic
Hasumi is famed as a film critic, critic of symbolic culture and
specialist in French literature. He has served as president of the
University of Tokyo, where he is now a professor emeritus. His
publications include ``The Invention of Mediocrity,'' ``Antitheory of
the Japanese Language,'' ``Mnemonic Devices in Cinema'' and ``Film
Lunatics: Here, There, and Everywhere.'' He has deeply influenced
major Japanese film directors such as Hideo Nakata, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
and Shinji Aoyama.
Tibor Meray
Hungarian novelist and journalist
Meray worked in North Korea as a military news correspondent during
the Korean War. He spent 14 months there and witnessed the signing of
the 1953 Armistice at Panmunjom, where he will visit again on
Friday. After the 1956Hungarian Uprising, he took refuge in Paris
where he currently heads the Hungarian Human Rights Commission. Among
his main publications are ``Reporting From Korea'' and ``The Truth of
Germ Warfare.''
Orhan Pamuk
Turkish novelist
Pamuk's first novel, ``Cevdet Bey and His Sons'' (1982), won the Orhan
Kemal Novel Prize. His historical novel ``The White Castle'' (1985),
extended his reputation abroad. Other works include ``New Life''
(1995), ``My Name Is Red'' (2001), and ``Snow'' (2004). His novels are
rich with allusion to old Sufi stories and traditional Islamic
tales. He has recently published a book about Istanbul, a city that
fascinates him. His books are now translated into 20 languages.
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Kenyan novelist, essayist and playwright
Ngugi made his debut as a novelist with ``Weep Not, Child'' (1964). It
was the first novel in English to be published by an East African
author. The transition from colonialism to post-colonialism and the
crisis of modernityhave been central issues in Ngugi's writings. In
1980, Ngugi published the first modern novel written in an African
language, rejecting the use of English. He is a professor at the
University of California at Irvine.
Margaret Drabble
British novelist, biographer and critic
The former actress at the Royal Shakespeare Company at
Stratford-upon-Avon published her first novel, ``A Summer Birdcage''
in 1963. Her novels since then include a trilogy of ``The Radiant
Way'' (1987), ``A Natural Curiosity'' (1989) and ``The Gates of
Ivory'' (1991). After attending the first Seoul International Forum in
2000, she wrote and published ``The Red Queen'' (2005), inspired in
part by the tragic memoirs of an 18th-century Korean crown princess.
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio
French novelist
Between 1967 and 1970, Le Clezio mainly lived with a tribe of Embera
Indians in the Panamanian jungles. He then taught literature at the
University of New Mexico and translated Native American myths. The
author of over 30 books, including ``La Fievre'' (1965, Fever), ``Le
Deluge'' (1966, The Flood), ``L'extase Materielle'' (1967, The
Material Ecstasy), ``Chercheur d'Or'' (1985, Gold Seeker), ``Desert''
(1987) and ``Et La Quarantaine'' (1995, Quarantine). His latest novel
is ``Revolutions'' (2003).''
Luis Sepulveda
Chilean novelist
Sepulveda was imprisoned in 1979 by the Pinochet regime while still a
student for over two years. In exile, he took part in a UNESCO
research project on the impact of colonization on the Amazonian
Indians. The result was his first novel, ``Un Viejo que leia Novelas
de Amor (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories).'' Other works include
``Diario de un Killer Sentimental (Diary ofa Sentimental Killer),''
``Nombre de Torero (Name of a Bullfighter)'' and ``Mundo de Fin Del
Mundo (World at the End of the World).''
Jean Baudrillard
French sociologist, cultural critic and postmodern theorist
Baudrillard is one of France's leading thinkers and a living
legend. Some suggest that his thought has shifted ``from the
post-Marxist (1968-71), to the socio-linguistic (1972-77), to the
techno-prophetic.'' In recent years he has become best known as
prophet of the implosion of meaning that attends the postmodern
condition. He is currently a professor at the European Graduate School
in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
Robert Coover
American novelist
Coover's first novel, ``The Origin of Brunists,'' won the 1966 William
Faulkner Award. He is widely regarded as one of America's most
influential living writers, author of some 15 groundbreaking books of
fiction, including ``The Universal Baseball Association, Inc.,''
``J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (1968),'' ``Spanking the Maid (1981),''
``Ghost Town (1998)'' and ``Stepmother (2004).'' He has been lauded as
an ``old school postmodernist.'' The New York Times Book Review has
called him the ``master of hypertext.''
Masao Miyoshi
American thinker and essayist
Professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, Masao
Miyoshi has long been a controversial, prominent figure in Japanese
studies and in American academia in general. Some of his recent works
include reflections on the humanities in an increasingly capitalist
university. Major works include ``Accomplices of Silence: The Modern
Japanese Novel (1975),'' ``Japan Is Not Interesting (2000)'' and
``Ivory Tower in Escrow (2000).''
Erling Kittelsen
Norwegian poet and novelist
Kittelsen studied philosophy before he published his first volume of
poems, ``Vile fugler (Wild Birds, 1970).'' His writings are not only
read but also widely discussed and utilized by other artists,
independent theater groups and students. He is currently involved in a
number of projects designed to translate poems written in Chinese,
Arabic, Latvian and other languages into Norwegian. His plays include
``Abiriels l©ªve (Abiriel's Lion, 1988)'' and ``Pa himmelen (In
Heaven, 2000).''
Mo Yan
Chinese novelist
Born as Guan Moye in 1956 in rural Shandong, northeastern China, he
has adopted the nom de plume Mo Yan, meaning ``don't speak'' in
Chinese. He hashad nine novels and over 70 short stories published in
the past 22 years, quitea number of which have been translated into a
number of languages. The film version of the novel ``Red Sorghum'' won
first prize in Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in
1988. He is considered to be one of the most talented and interesting
modern Chinese writers.
Gary Snyder
American poet
Between working as a logger, a trail-crew member, and a seaman on a
Pacific tanker, Snyder studied Oriental languages at Berkeley (1953-6)
and was associated with Beat writers such as Ginsberg and Kerouac. He
also lived inJapan (1956-64), later studying Buddhism there. He now
teaches literature and ``wilderness thought'' at the University of
California at Davis. He has been described as an eco-poet and an
eco-warrior. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975 for ``Turtle
Island.''
Thomas Brussig
German novelist and dramatist
After six years working as a construction worker, as well as a museum
porter and dishwasher, Brussiq began to study sociology before going
on to study drama and film. He is one of Germany's most visible
post-unification writers. His novelistic account of the fall of the
Berlin Wall, ``Helden wie Wir (1995, Heroes Like Us),'' has been
adapted into an award-winning stage play and film, and translated into
numerous languages.
Wolf Biermann German poet and dramatist
As a university student in East Germany, Biermann started to write
poems, which did not adhere to the individual demands of
socialism. Subsequently, his following works could only be published
in the West, including his first volume of poetry ``Die Drahtharfe
(1965, The Wire Harp).'' In 1976, while Biermann was on a concert tour
in West Germany, he was deprived of his citizenship, sparking a
protest that is often considered the beginning of the end of East
Germany.
Vera Grigorievna Galaktionova
Russian novelist
Born in 1948, Galaktionova's works focus on Chernobyl, on regional
disputes such as that in Karabakh (along the frontier between
Azerbaijan and Armenia), the divisions within the spiritual unity of
Russia, the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union and
hostilities between different ethnic groups, investigating the
historical mechanisms underlying these social divisions. Her main
works include ``The Mighty Cross,'' ``The Winged House,'' ``On Buyan
Island'' and ``Quiet Night.''
Bei Dao
Chinese Poet
Zhao Zhenkai was born in 1949 in Beijing. His pen name Bei Dao,
literally meaning ``North Island,'' was suggested by a friend as a
reference to his provenance from northern China and his typical
solitude. Writing in free verse, Bei Dao is best known for intensely
compressed images and cryptic style. Among the English translations of
his works are ``Old Snow'' (1991), ``Landscape Over Zero'' (1996) and
``Unlock'' (2000).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress