Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 11 (2018)

Lim Ok-sang’s Landscape II, 1976, Ink and oil on rice paper, 64 × 128 cm, featured in this issue of Azalea.

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture volume 11 opens with the following note from editor Young-Jun Lee:

The Korean peninsula is now in the midst of a series of remarkable and dramatic changes. People the world over are surprised, curious, and relieved, especially those who feared imminent war on the peninsula. In addition, the first female president of Korea is now in prison, and her predecessor was also arrested and soon will be tried. The current president, who has a very high approval rating, used the Winter Olympics as a stage for international diplomacy and led North Korea to the bargaining table. We do not know if Kim Jong Un will give up nuclear weapons, or if Trump will sign a peace treaty or pledge economic cooperation, but it is no exaggeration to say that these changes are seismic.

With the news that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons and conducting missile tests, and that evacuation drills were taking place in Japan and Hawaii, people with relatives in Korea would call them, worried about their safety. There was also contrasting news. Some foreign media were surprised to hear that nothing appeared to be happening in Seoul, and its inhabitants were going about their daily lives despite the threat of imminent war. In turbulent times, art enables us to grasp these apparent contradictions and complexities. Art can give us insight into the minds of Koreans who are experiencing and responding to events as they happen. This volume of Azalea presents outstanding work that illuminates the Korean spirit under conditions both ordinary and extraordinary.

Writer in Focus: Cheon Myeong-Gwan

Excerpt from Whale
Cheon Myeong-gwan, Jae Won Chung

Twenty
Cheon Myeong-gwan, Jamie Chang

Excerpt from My Uncle Bruce Lee
Cheon Myeong-gwan, Susanna Lim

Pink
Cheon Myeong-gwan, Jamie Chang

A Conversation with Cheon Myeong-gwan
Jamie Chang

Fiction

A Journal from the Alpha-Omega Kosiwon
Park Min-gyu, Kyung Hyun Kim, Sue Heun Kim

Roadkill
Yun Ko Eun, Lizzie Buehler

Sister Thief
Bae Suah, Janet Hong

Forever a Narrator
Kim Ae-ran, Eungee Sung

Poetry

Poems by Kim Joong-Il, Lee Young-ju, Han Kang, Lee Jangwook, Ha Jaeyoun, and An Heeyeon.

Another Perspective

Raising the Profile of Korean Literature Overseas
Seong-Kon Kim

Special Feature: Yi T’aeujun

Introduction to Yi T’aejun’s Travels in China
Jun Youb Lee

Excerpt from Travels in China: A Great New China
Yi T’aejun, Jun Youb Lee

Images

Images and Image Index

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About the Journal

Azalea promotes Korean literature among English-language readers. Azalea introduces to the world new writers as well as promising translators, providing the academic community of Korean studies with well-translated texts for college courses. Writers from around the world also share their experience of Korean literature or culture with wider audiences.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions for both individuals and institutions are available here.

#LookItUP: Minority Voices in UHP Journals

 

This is Part 4 in a series of University of Hawai`i Press blog posts celebrating University Press Week and highlighting scholarship published by UH Press journals in the past year. Read our introductory blog post here. Our hope is that this series will shed new light on how UH Press “sells the facts,” so to speak, and the value our 24 journals bring to our very existence. Links to each journal and article are provided below.*

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Minority Voices

U.S. -Japan Women’s Journal, Number 51, 2017
Article: “Building a Feminist Scholarly Community: Fifty-One Issues of U.S.–Japan Women’s Journal” by Jan Bardsley

Context: Like many of our scholarly journals, U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal is a community of minority voices in and of itself. This volume celebrates 50 issues of bringing women’s studies and scholars together across international boundaries.

 

 

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture, Volume 10, 2017
Special Section: Writer in Focus: Kim Sagwa

Context: Azalea presents five pieces by Korean author Kim Sagwa, who was able to complete her first novel under the United States an Alien of Extraordinary Ability in the Arts visa in 2016. One must wonder, given the tide change in immigrant policies and arts funding under the current administration, if such visas will be available for international artists in the future.

 

Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, Volume 39, Number 4, Fall 2016
Special Section: International Year in Review

Context: Biography launched a new annual section that provides reports on life writing from across the world. This new venue gives us a lens by which to see global shifts in personal identity, from authors writing out of the U.K.’s Brexit to memoirists lyrically documenting the U.S.’s transgender community to historical biographers nostalgic for pre-1949 Republican China.

 

Trans-Humanities Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, 2017
Article: “Mapping the Terrain of New Black Fatherhood in Contemporary African American Literature” by Set-Byul Moon

Context: Literature can bridge the great divide between knowing and understanding, and this article looks at how the African American father has been developed against negative stereotypes through the writings of “Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison to contemporary — and relatively young — authors such as Leonard Pitts Jr. and Bernice L. McFadden.”

 

Asian Theatre Journal, Volume 34, Number 1, Spring 2017
Special Section: Founders in the Field

Context: Asian Theatre Journal‘s Spring 2017 issue highlights three founders in the field–all women: Rachel Cooper, Kathy Foley, and Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei. Editor Kathy Foley also makes this charge to reviewers: “To become a truly international journal, cross-border research that does not always detour to Western thinking is much needed. It is limiting when authors feel they have to routinely apply Western tropes of gender, class, or aesthetics.”

 

Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Volume 10, 2017
Section: Submission Guidelines

Context: This journal stands out for not only making new research in the field of Southeast Asian linguistics available for free via open-access publishing, but for its commitment to the peer review process, which ensures the publication of accurate information. From its submission guidelines: “Each original article undergoes double-blind review by at least two scholars, usually a member of the [JSEALS] Advisory Board and one or more independent referees.”

 

China Review International: A Journal of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in Chinese Studies, Volume 22, Number 1, 2015
Article: “Review of Ka-ming Wu’s Reinventing Chinese Tradition: The Cultural Politics of Late Socialism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015)” by Nyíri Pál

Context: New scholarship benefits from criticism, and in this issue of China Review International (published in 2017), reviewer Nyíri Pál offers a fresh analysis of Chinese folk traditions in light of economic developments and recent ethnographic studies of “culture workers.”

 

*Institutional access to online aggregators such as Project MUSE may be required for full-text reading. For access questions, please see the Project MUSE FAQ available here or contact your local library.

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Established in 1947, the University of Hawai`i Press supports the mission of the university through the publication of books and journals of exceptional merit. The Press strives to advance knowledge through the dissemination of scholarship—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—with a primary focus on Asian, Pacific, Hawaiian, Asian American, and global studies. It also serves the public interest by providing high-quality books, journals and resource materials of educational value on topics related to Hawai`i’s people, culture, and natural environment. Through its publications the Press seeks to stimulate public debate and educate both within and outside the classroom.

For more information on the University of  Hawai`i Press and our publications, visit www.uhpress.hawaii.edu. To receive table-of-contents email alerts for these publications, please click here to sign up at Project MUSE.

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 10 (2017)

Candle Light Protest, 12 November 2016, Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul. Images From Chung Taek Yong in this issue of Azalea.

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture volume 10 features the following writings, poetry, and artwork:

CONTENTS:

David R. McCann
Editor’s Note

I am bringing ten years’ association with AZALEA journal to an end with this essay, this issue. I am so very grateful to Young-Jun Lee, whose creation the journal was, is, and will always be, and also
to the translators, authors, and literary scholars in Korea, North
America, and around the globe who have contributed their work
to this effort. For Harvard University’s Korea Institute, which has
provided staff, office space, storage closets and shelves, and above all
a spirit of dedication to the field, my gratitude is immense. Finally,
my thanks to the International Communications Foundation of
Seoul, which has provided both financial support over the years and
encouragement for the effort here and in meetings in Korea on the
subject and the project.

Writer in Focus: Kim Sagwa

Bruce Futlon
Introduction

Kim Sagwa
Chunhŭi

Strange and Ominous Presentiments

P’ul Recumbent

Speaking of Disdain

Say hello to UH Press at AAS Booth 600

If you’re attending the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Toronto March 16-19, 2017, be sure to visit the University of Hawai’i Press at booth 600!

UH Press will have Asian studies books from our latest catalogs on display, as well as copies of the following journals:

• Asian Perspectives Volume 55, Issue 1
• Asian Theatre Journal Volume 33, Issue 2
• Azalea Volume 9
• Buddhist-Christian Studies Volume 36
• China Review International  Volume 21, Issue 2
• Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review Volume 5, Issue 2 (see also booth 603)
• Journal of Korean Religions Volume 7, Issue 2
• Korean Studies Volume 40
• MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing Volume 28, Issue 2 (Red Peonies: Two Novellas of China)
• Philosophy East and West Volume 66, Issue 4
• Review of Japanese Culture and Society Volume 27
• U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal Volume 50

We’re also proud to debut three online-only journals at AAS 2017:

• Journal of Daoist Studies
• Trans-Humanities
• Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society

Stop by and say hello as you browse through our display copies and catalogs. You may also pick up an order form at our booth or place your orders online at www.uhpress.hawaii.edu.

We look forward to seeing you in cold, snowy Toronto!

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 9 (2016)

From Kim Jung Soo’s paintings in this issue of Azalea.

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture volume 9 features the following writings, poetry, and artwork:

CONTENTS:

Editor’s Note

Writer in Focus: Song Sokze

Sora Kim-Russell, Jenny Wang Medina, Jae Won Chung
Translator’s Roundtable with Song Sokze

Song Sokze
A Real Piece of Work
Tale of Cho Tong-gwan
Roughing It

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 8 (2015)

Editor’s Note
David R. McCann, ix

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
Once again, readers will discover a rich and varied array of contemporary Korean literary and image work in the current issue of Azalea journal. We celebrate the 100th anniversary of the births of two of the twentieth century’s great Korean writers, Midang Sŏ Chŏngju, the poet, and Hwang Sunwŏn, the short story and novel writer. Periodically, as the cultural, political, and historical tides in Korea have fallen and risen only to fall and rise again, these two writers have been lionized, denigrated, taken as emblems of Korea’s literary capabilities and accomplishments, or set to the side as passé, out-of-sync, politically unacceptable, or just too old to matter. Yet readers will find a rich array of reflections on these two writers and examples of their literary accomplishments. May you savor and treasure. Let us resolve to keep these writers central to our understanding of the terrain that Korean literature traversed in the twentieth century and to comprehend how much it would lose if it did not value, even treasure, these and others in the twenty-first.

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 7 (2014)

David R. McCann
Editor’s Note, 9

Special Feature: Contemporary Korean American Writing

Guest Editors: Heinz Insu Fenkl and Minsoo Kang

Heinz Insu Fenkl
Introduction, 13

Minnow Park
Lessons from My Grandfather, 19

Karla Kim
Our Missing Half, 23

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 6 (2013)

David R. McCann
Editor’s Note, 7

Special Feature: Contemporary Korean Science Fiction

Haerin Shin
The Curious Case of South Korean Science Fiction: A Hyper-Technological Society’s Call for Speculative Imagination, 81

Kim Kyung-uk
Young Hearts Never Grow Old, 87

Kim Jung-hyuk
1F/B1, 111

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 5 (2012)

David R. McCann
Editor’s Note, 7

Writer in Focus: Kim Aeran

Kim Aeran
Flugdatenschreiber, 11
Mouthwatering, 33
Pit-a-pat, My Life, 59

Jamie Chang
Interview with Kim Aeran, 79

Images

Choi Ho-Cheol
Cartoons: Images of Seoul

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 4 (2011)

David R. McCann
Editor’s Note, 7

Writer in Focus: Gong Jiyoung

Gong Jiyoung
The Key, 11

Gong Jiyoung
Excerpt from The Crucible, 41

Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton, and Soohyun Chang
Interview with Gong Jiyoung, 71