Nam Center Colloquium Series | Words of Times, Writings of Desire: Our Study on Korean Cultural History and Literature through Journals

From Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule, and the renaissance of Hangeul character culture that followed, until the 2000s we are left to reflect on bygone eras, the culture we have reclaimed and what they have left behind. The culmination of each subsequent decade in the history of the Korean mentality can be found in the study of magazines and periodicals that survived the ebb and flow of political, cultural turmoil. They offer us a snapshot to Korean cultural history and the current state of literary studies.

Jung-hwan Cheon teaches Korean literature, novels in particular, and cultural history at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea as an associate professor. A 2002 Ph.D. from the Korean Literature Department at Seoul National University, Prof. Cheon has conducted research on the history of cultural politics in Korea and engaged contemporary South Korean popular culture as a culture critic.

His publications include Reading Books in Modern Times (2003), The Revolution and Laughs (2005), and The Era of Collective Intelligence (2008). On Suicide: Between Suffering and Knowledge (Chasallon: Kot’ong kwa haesok saieso) (2013). Words of Times, Writings of Desire: Korean Cultural History through the Inaugural Prefaces of 123 Journals (Sidae ui mal, yongmang ui munjang: 123 p’yon chapchi ch’anggansa ro ilgun han’guk hyondae munhaksa). Seoul: Maum sanch’aek, 2014. Kwon Podurae and Jung-hwan Cheon, A Reflection on 1960: Intellectuals and Cultural Politics in Pak Chung Hee’s Era (1960 nyon ul mudda: Pak Chung Hee sidae ui munhwa chongch’i wa chisong). Seoul: Ch’onnyon ui sangsang, 2012.

His current research projects include discourses on the history of collective intelligence in Korea. He is writing and editing books on literary history of modern Korea.