An American professor has brought the classical novels of the novelist Park
Ji-won of the Joseon period onto the global stage by translating ten short
stories into English.
Emanuel Pastreich, who goes by the Korean name Lee
Man-yeol, recently published two books in English with Seoul National University
Press: “The Novels of Park Jiwon” and “The Observable Mundane, a study of
Japanese Chinese novels. He expanded parts of his dissertation on how Chinese
vernacular literature impacted Korean and Japanese literature and expanded it
into two separate books.
One side of his room is filled with Chinese and Japanese classic literature
books, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. “I have put much work into
researching literary relations between China, Japan and Korea and I think the
topic is critical to our understanding of the region,” he explained of his
work.
His devotion to East Asian culture and literature began when he
chose Chinese literature and language as an undergraduate at Yale. “I was
fascinated with Chinese characters. There’s something artistic about them,” he
remarked.
Pastreich was motivated to study Chinese by “a combination of
the fun of learning Chinese language, an interest in traditional Chinese culture
and a feeling that China would become an important country in the
future.”
That was in 1983, but back then East Asian language and
literature was not a very popular major in the U.S.
“My major has only
three students that year,” he said.
In his senior year, Pastreich was
drawn to Japanese literature and later thought he should know Korea in order to
understand the full history of literature in Asia. While writing his Ph.D.
dissertation at Harvard University in 1994, he came to Seoul National University
in 1995 for a year.
That’s when he discovered “great richness in the
Korean tradition” and met his wife, who was a student of Korean music. Two years
later they were married and his father-in-law gave him the Korean name “Lee
Man-yeol,” similar in pronunciation to his name Emanuel., but featuring his
wife’s surname “Lee.”
He speaks Korean fluently, although he remarks
that he’s still more comfortable speaking Japanese. Nevertheless, Pastreich is
fluent enough to carry on discussions with his students in Korean and often
writes articles in Korean which he posts on his blog.
Pastreich became
the director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Kyung Hee University
this semester. He is using the program as an opportunity to encourage
cooperation between the humanities and the sciences. In his “Technology and
Society Forum” class, he encourages students to discuss comprehensive issues
such as how smart phones have affected our society. He carries on detailed
discussions via his blog with the students.
His latest challenge is to
go beyond the combination of different academic fields, experimenting with
innovative new approaches to teaching. He is exploring different approaches to
make students comfortable talking in class. “You cannot expect them to talk in
class. You have to create an environment,” he explained. “Korean students have
good basic knowledge of facts. However, in class, some of them are not focused
and sometimes they are not serious. Once you get them involved, however, they
have lots to say and are often thoughtful.”
With those challenges in
mind, Pastreich plans to go back to his original major of literature and teach a
comparative literature class and class on novelist Park Ji-won next
semester.
His book launch will be held at the Paik Hae Young Gallery in
Itaewon on June 30 at 5 PM. His books are also available at Kyobo bookstore and
Amazon.com.
By Lee Woo-young (
wylee@heraldm.com)
