What Korean and Japanese literatures tell about countries

2013-08-11 13:55

What Korean and Japanese literatures tell about countries
By Yoon Sung-won, Kim Da-ye
John Treat, a professor of East Asian languages and literature at Yale University, is a rare Western scholar with extensive insight into Korean literature, especially that from the Japanese colonial period. His association with Korea was formed almost accidentally, partly because he had long hair in his youth. In 1971, Treat was sent to Vietnam to serve as a civilian employee in a military hospital. After six months of service, he went to Japan for “rest and recreation” where he witnessed a stark contrast between the war-torn Vietnam and the peaceful, affluent and liberated Japan. Treat went back to Japan as a student, and his girlfriend and he planned to travel to Taiwan during the summer vacation. He wasn’t granted a visa because of his lengthy hair. The couple decided to visit Korea instead, taking a boat from Kobe to Kyushu and then to Busan. They spent a week in Korea, hitchhiking around. More than 20 years later, Korea revisited Treat’s life. The scholar specialized in Japanese literature back then, and a Japanese colleague recommended him to study Korean writers under the Japanese colonial rule who wrote both in Korean and in Japanese. Treat found the idea interesting and began learning the Korean language in his 40s. The author of several works of fiction  and non-fiction is now an authority in the study of pro-Japanese Korean writers under the colonial rule. Last year, he published a paper on Yi Kwang-su, a prominent writer whose reputation has been tainted for having collaborated with the Japanese regime, in the Journal of Asian Studies. In the abstract, Treat wrote, “Yi Kwang-su, Korea’s most distinguished modern novelist as well as one of its more notorious pro-Japanese partisans during the colonial period, offers a compelling test case for how we might attempt to not only understand, but also morally adjudicate, his support of Japan’s occupation of his country. With the ongoing debate over collaboration with the German Reich in mind, I contend that the case of colonial Korea presents us with important first-order ethical issues to resolve.” The professor is now working on a book dealing with the same subject, “Collaboration, Conversion and Modernity: Korean Writers under Japanese Rule.” Treat visited Korea this summer for a special purpose — teaching at Ewha Womans University. He taught an unusual subject, “Same Sex Desire in East Asian Literature.” He said he had a “wonderful experience” at Ewha. On the day of the interview, he was going to grade final papers. He said he previewed the papers in class and he found the level of analysis was as high as he would get at Yale. The professor talked to The Korea Times further about how Japanese and Korean literature differ from each other; why Korea hasn’t won a Nobel Prize in literature; and what he thinks of pro-Japanese Korean writers during the colonial period. The following questions and answers have been edited.Q You have studied the literature of both Korea and Japan, two countries that were profoundly involved with each other in history. How would you compare the literature of the two?

A For a long time, the histories of literature in Korea and Japan were similar. Both countries were influenced by China.

And then, Japanese literature began to take itself out under the influence of Chinese literature earlier than Korean literature did. Chinese literature has a higher prestige in Korea than it did in Japan. The yangban, the ruling class during the Joseon Kingdom, resisted the de-sinicization.

Also, Japan had a broader and a more popular history of theater than Korea. Theaters provide writers with the ability to write dialogue. Thanks to the theaters, Japanese writers in the modern period were already highly skilled at writing dialogue, with which Korean and Chinese writers had struggled.

What hit the growth of Korean literature the hardest was the colonial rule by Japan which lasted over 35 years. During the rule, Japan discouraged and eventually tried to abolish the use of the Korean language. So for half the 20th century, Korean literature and Korean writers had to struggle under a greater burden, which Korean literature is still reacting to.

Confucianism had greater influence in Korea than in Japan. Modern Korean writers cared much about family structure while the Japanese counterparts didn’t. From the women’s point of view, in particular, the struggle against Confucianism has been a long and hard one in Korea. Female Japanese writers at that time might also have their own burdens. But it was not Confucianism.

Q What influence do you think Korea and Japan have on each other now in terms of literature and culture?

A First, you can find the influence of Japanese literature in Korea from the popularity of the latest novel by Murakami Haruki which was translated into Korean before it was translated into any other foreign language. It was almost instant. I even found it curious that Murakami has never come to this country yet.

In my opinion, many Koreans tend to blindly follow popular Japanese literature. My Korean colleagues in Korean literature tell me there are young Korean writers who try to imitate the writing style of Murakami.

I think Korea’s influence on Japan is not obvious in literature. On the other hand, it’s more evident in music. Not just K-pop, but traditional Korean music also has an impact in Japan. There are composers such as Sakamoto Ryuichi who has incorporated traditional Korean music into his compositions.

I would say that the Korean wave, hallyu, has had a major impact in Japan. It’s resulted in an increase in the number of Japanese studying the Korean language and visiting Korea for travel. It has increased the familiarity of the Japanese with Korean food.

Q Japan has two Nobel Prize winners in literature — Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe — whereas Korea hasn’t had any yet. Why do you think that is?

A I’ve been asked this question a lot. But I believe there is no particular logic regarding to whom the Nobel Prize in literature is granted. Sometimes, writers you never heard of get the Nobel Prize whereas Jorge Luis Borges, one of the greatest 20th writers from Argentina, never received the prize. So I would say, “Just relax” about the Nobel Prize.

You also have to understand that the Nobel Prize for literature is not a prize for literature as it is, but a prize for literature in translation. The Swedish Academy doesn’t read in Korean, nor do they in Urdu. They read in translation. In this sense, having works translated is very important.

The Korean government subsidizes translating literature by living writers into Western languages because they are trying to get a Nobel Prize. Dead writers can’t get a prize. Perhaps that’s why many Koreans hope writer Go Eun lives longer so he can run for the prize.

Politics also has a lot to do with it. I think that it is more difficult to win the Nobel Prize in literature if you are not politically left-wing. West European intellectuals tend to prefer left-wing writers. It’s a prejudice they have.

I worry that to some of these intellectuals, China, Korea and Japan are all the same. Mo Yan, a Chinese writer, won the Nobel Prize in literature last year and the Japanese already have two. Perhaps they think Asians have had enough.

I think that many things other than literary worth and quality factored into this. Whether one receives the Nobel Prize is not taken as seriously in the West as it is in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In these countries, there is some sort of validation nationally when writers in these countries win the Nobel Prize.

Q What is your opinion on pro-Japanese writers who cooperated with the Japanese authorities during the colonial period?

A How I feel toward them doesn’t really matter, does it? I think it matters really how much Korean people think about them because it is the Korean nation that has to judge them. My project is trying to understand both. My project is trying to sit in their chairs, stand in their shoes, and understand why one would cooperate and why one would resist.

This is the experience that Americans have never undergone. We’ve never been occupied. Koreans had and the Japanese had by the Americans starting in 1945. So my project is not to judge them. My project is to try to understand the thought process. One doesn’t wake up in the morning and decides to become pro-Japanese. It’s a series of very strong decisions that one makes that add up over time.

These men had the best intentions. But they, as we were saying in English, bet that on the wrong horse, they gambled. And the war ended with the U.S. defeating Japan. If Japan had defeated the U.S., these collaborators might be considered heroes here. Who could have predicted what will happen? So I think there needs to be a little generosity in judging. But many people say we can’t, saying that we can’t imagine what it was like back then.

But I think we should. Because in a sense, aren’t we asked to collaborate today? I’m a taxpayer in a country which is fighting wars aboard. I’m paying my taxes. It’s that collaboration? And that’s what many Koreans did during the Japanese occupation. So I do believe that history must judge. But I think we should be very careful about it.

Q You’ve dealt with homosexuality in literature, and teach the subject at Ewha. What made you get interested in the subject?

A That too came late in my career. I was very aware that many American specialists on Asia, specialists on China, specialists on Korea, specialists on Japan, were themselves homosexual. I’m speaking largely of the men, though there were women as well.

So I wrote a book in the late 1990s exploring the relationship between, specifically, Japanese studies and sexual orientation. And I’ve continued that interest. This is all relatively recent research and the research is controversial. It’s not work I did until I became a full professor with a full tenure at the university.

I don’t think Confucianism had the impact on Japan that it had in Korea, China and Vietnam. Japan is a patriarchic society as is my own. But it is difficult for young Koreans to announce their homosexuality. It would be greater than that of young Japanese because of the continuing obligation that so many people fear not producing heirs and children. You know, typically, when Korean women and Korean men decide to live a homosexual lifestyle, what disappoints the family immediately is the loss of grandchildren. I think it is felt more acutely here than in Japan although it is certainly a concern in Japan as well as in the U.S.

Q You have argued that Korean studies at Yale University and in the U.S. should be expanded to better understand East Asia as a whole. What do you think would be possible steps for that?

A Like a marriage or a fight, you need two parties. On one hand, we need institutions that wish to build up Korean studies. The situation is not bad at all. In the U.S., not just what we call the first-tier universities but also the second and third-tier universities have built Korean studies now.

Besides convincing institutions to build Korean studies, we need quality faculty to hire. Yet, it is a small field. If Yale decides to hire faculty in Korean studies, which one day it will, we need first-class academics. Since we have to build Korean studies from the ground up, we need Korean studies majors at the undergraduate level and academics for graduate school. We also need support for them when they come to South Korea to do research. It will be a long process.

The Korea Foundation has established professorships all over the world. What happens is, after the foundation creates a professorship in a university, the foundation would hire another professor of the foundation’s professorship away from another university. Such a thing happens because the pool was small. So the Korea Foundation was producing competition among the small number of professors. Their salaries would go up, but the absolute number of Korean studies professors wouldn’t increase. The Foundation now knows that. That’s what they are careful about.

The point is that it’s not about just convincing a university to build a Korean studies program. Once they make the decision to do so, they must have a pool of excellent faculty. So many people have to cooperate and coordinate so that the field can grow.

Q What is your favorite piece of Korean literature so far if you can pick any?

A When I teach Korean literature, what students have most fun with is Kim Young-ha. But the novel incorporates elements of detective stories — he handles sexuality well and he’s entertaining. Most recently I think, in English translation, we have, is “Your Republic Is Calling You.” But he has lectured in the U.S. and he is attracting crowds.