CFP: KOREAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING

Korean Literature Association Annual Meeting,

November 11-12, 2022

The Korean Literature Association cordially invites proposals for its annual meeting on the theme of “Resonance” to be held at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. We invite individual papers and team projects that reflect on the way resonance can open up and connect Korean literary studies to the broader human world across disciplinary boundaries, historical periods, geographical borders, and linguistic systems.

Resonance—derived from its Latin roots resonare (resound) and resonantia (echo) and the French résonance—refers to a sound or a quality of a sound. Yet as The OED lists, resonance also means the power to evoke images, memories, and emotions; a sympathetic response; and allusions, connotations, and overtones. Although the specifications vary, the overarching concept of resonance involves movement through either vibration, oscillation, wave, or amplification that leads to a response—another movement, which together can produce meaning and value. Using these broad definitions as a starting metaphor and a springboard for creative extensions, we hope that the theme of “Resonance” allows us to explore Korean literature by embracing myriad forms, modes, and mechanisms that are both intimately and distantly connected to what constitutes Korean literature’s legacies and transformations. In this way, this conference aims to reconceptualize resonance as an important heuristic device for Korean literary and cultural studies.

Of particular interest to this endeavor will be discussions on how and where Korean literature resonates. How might we analyze, interpret, and ground resonance within Korean literature’s history and its contemporary making? How can we use resonance as a framework for transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary work on Korea? How is Korean literature embedded in the practices of the larger humanities and other fields, such as in the social sciences and STEM and vice versa? How might the resonances of Korean literature challenge the long-established theoretical practices and contribute to the ongoing making of global aesthetics? What are the places, moments, and instances of dissonance rather than resonance which nevertheless allow Korean literature to intervene in knowledge building and problem-solving and illuminating human conditions?

Topics could include but are not limited to the following:

• Sound and sonic culture in Korea

• Technologies and techniques of writing, reading, listening, seeing

• Adaptation, Transemdiality, Intermediality

• Premodern and Modern East Asian literary connections

• Korean diaspora and Global Korean aesthetics

• Digital humanities or Humanizing digitalization

• Public humanities and Korean literature

The KLA seeks submissions from graduate students and faculty at any stage of their careers who are interested in presenting papers at the Conference. Individual as well as organized panels are welcome. Humanities and the study of literature have often been construed as an individual endeavor rather than a team effort, in this call for proposals, we are especially interested in seeking projects that bring teams of researchers together in demonstrating collaborative building of Korean literary studies. We are currently planning an in-person conference at the University of Oregon.

The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2022. 

Please send your 300-word abstract and a short CV to Jina Kim at jinak@uoregon.edu