Renowned Korean Poet, Dissident Ko Un to Speak At York University Symposium on Bringing Minority Literatures to North America

TORONTO, May 5, 1999 -- Korean poet and dissident Ko Un will speak at a York University Symposium, Friday, May 7, about bringing minority literatures to a North American audience in the global era. Prof. Ko, of Kyung-Gi University in Seoul, is a former political prisoner and outspoken critic of South Korea's authoritarian governments in the 1970s and 80s. Originally a Buddhist monk, he left the priesthood to write about broader social and human rights issues, and his work was banned. Some of his Zen poems are translated into English in a 1997 volume entitled Beyond Self.

The symposium, Translating in the Age of Globalization: Korean Literature in North America, also features authors and translators of Yiddish and Chilean poetry.

"This is a multicultural event of crucial importance. We have to understand how Canadian culture and language is constantly being reformulated," said symposium organizer and York University Humanities Professor, Theresa Hyun, noting the expanding influence of Asian and other cultures in Toronto and across the country. "There is a hidden force at work that is changing our language and culture in fundamental ways, through the translation of different cultural ideas and concepts into English. Globalism is not a monolith where the English language and culture is universal. It is a complex and multi-layered transfer of information from one culture to another," said Hyun.

Other keynote speakers are Professor Kim Jay-Hong from Kyung-Hee University in Seoul, a scholar and critic who has published extensively on modern Korean poetry and culture, and Bruce Fulton of Seoul National University, an award-winning translator of modern Korean literature. The event will begin with a multicultural panel consisting of Yiddish author Hedda Rosenfarb and translator Vivian Felson, and Albert and Theresa Mortiz, translators of the Chilean poet Ludwig Zeller, and translator Beatrice Zeller.

"The symposium is also important in involving the larger Korean community for the first time in events at York," said Hyun, adding that the Korean Canadian Writers Association has provided a great deal of help in mobilizing the community and laying the groundwork for a new generation of writers. Hyun taught the first course on Korean culture at York in 1992 to a mere four students. Some 140 students are now in three Korea-related courses. The Max Bell Foundation and Korea Foundation are helping to fund the development of Korean studies at York.

The symposium will start at 9:30 a.m. at Founders College on the York University Keele campus, 4700 Keele Street. Keynote speeches begin at 1:30 p.m. in Winters College Dining Hall, which is in the adjacent building.

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For more information, please contact:

Prof. Theresa Hyun
Organizer
(416) 538-9229 (tel/fax)
(416) 560-1358 (cell)
mdavis@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations, York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
YU/046/99