Youn-Ju Suh Humanities
How English Literature Filtered through the Empire of Japan Influenced the Formation of Modern Korean Literature in the 1930s
In contrast to to nineteenth-century British India, which adopted English studies from the UK, and nineteenth-century Japan, which westernized itself with British and American assistance, Modern Korean authors in the 1930s learned English literature through a third, non-Anglophone country, Japan. This unusual case raises a question not only about the relationship between the adoption of English literature through Japan and the formation of Modern Korean literature but also about the relationship between empire and language of empire. Through the comparison between literary features of the selected Modern Korean literary works and English literary works and research on the institutionalization of English literature in these two Asian countries, Youn-Ju will produce a meaningful comparative study of Modern Korean literature and the influence of English literature.
