A Maru Space for Literature

After visiting “Enter Korea” / Guest of Honour-Program at Frankfurt Book Fair

Kosok Doro, some years ago. She asked me: ”What is your
favourite writer?” I told her. Then she bought 2 small volumes in a nearby bookstore. “This is my favourite.” She gave me Rilke in Korean. And she kept my favourite. Since then I miss something, when I read Rilke in German. –

I first did “Enter Korea” in 1990 when I co-managed a German Book Exhibition and handled a historic Gutenberg Printing Machine with endless joy. In these times cultural exchange between Germany and South Korea was on a one-way street and this was especially true for the publishing sector. At Kyobo I could find more of German philosophy – translated - than even in big book stores in Germany. Licences were a problem. But there was an interest in German literature, science and technology among the students, which was really amazing and a little bit embarrassing to sensitive Germans at the same time. Few things were available in Germany 1990 to balance this vivacious Korean interest in German culture. Translations of Korean literature into German were difficult to find and the selection of available works seemed highly arbitrary. And I felt difficult with something else. Korean literature at that time did not deal with what was most intriguing for me: the intense, transitory existence of the metropolitan nomad in Seoul. I later came to understand that a nomadic or fugitive existence had a far less romantic meaning to the generation of the Korean War. My favourite at that time was Choi In-Hun “Kubo – the novelist”, which was not available in German – of cause – but in English - at least. Anyway: Since that time my impression was that the “Lebenswelt” of the young urban population remained a rather neglected subject in Korean contemporary literature.

Frankfurt 2005. Korea: brilliant host for so many times - now guest of honour at the International Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s biggest interface for publishing and content in the information society. What has changed? Without knowing Germans, Koreans did develop an interest in German literature. I think for Germans the opposite is true. It is not Korean literature but Koreans themselves who promote an interest in your country and its people – and finally in its cultural products. In this sense Frankfurt is of cause not totally abroad. Since it works as the European hub for Korean business, Frankfurt is proud to have one of the biggest Korean communities in Europe. And you could feel that. Translation was everywhere during the fair and the Korean students here and as well young Kyopos, Koreans grown up in Germany, took their chance to make themselves a little bit more familiar with the literature of their own origin. It was in Frankfurt that many of them did meet with Yi Munyol for the first time. And with other poets whose names they did not even know! “Enter Korea” was the label of the campaign. So during my visit of the central exhibition space it came to my mind that abroad is never totally abroad and sometimes even Koreans have to “Enter Korea”.

Do we have progress? Since 1990 there are two new publishing houses in Germany devoted to Korean literature. They sell even poetry which usually proofs to be difficult in Germany. Thanks to the funding of the Korean Literature Translation Institute (LTI) and Daesan Foundation these and other publishing houses were able to publish Korean literature in numbers we have not seen until now and with a much better quality of translation. This year for the first time a big player in German publishing “Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv)” did establish a focal point on Korea starting with 3 works of Hwang Sok-yong and 2 anthologies. As the literary scene in Korea has vividly developed, the German book market shows for the first time a broad range of translations including personalities like Yisang or Kim Ku and the complete translation of Pak Kyongni’s monumental work 토지 (German: „Land“; in progress), but as well the offspring of this remarkable gender turn in Korean literature with works from Oh Jung-Hee, Han Kang, Shin Kyong-Suk, Jo Kyung-Ran and many others. The biggest part consists still lof literary works dealing with the separation of the Korean nation and the conflicts and suffering under military rule. That’s why for the first time we have something like a historic depth of the picture. For people like me this is new: I’m able to recommend Korean literature!

But there is something else. Korean literature is surrounded by remarkable developments in the Korean film industry and in the arts, especially the stage arts. In Frankfurt the central exhibition space therefore worked as the silent centre of an interconnected field. Museums in and around Frankfurt expose historic and contemporary art, including minjung art in Darmstadt. Gala presentations, films, dancing, musical (Line No. 1), theatre, Puri Group and P’ansori combined to a fascinating surround sound of Korean culture. (Shim Cheong was available as P'ansori performance, as publication from Yi Cheong-Jun, as original Pansori text and as animation film with North Korean collaboration outside the official program.) We know about Korean multimedia capabilities in a technical sense. But the multimedia quality of Korean culture is not as familiar to Europeans, may be due to an rather folkloristic picture produced by certain groups abroad. It is one of the mysteries of Korean contemporary culture that this synthesis of electronic media and print, of text and screen, of stage and cyberspace seems to work for both sides. In Frankfurt this was made very clear at Mousonturm, a cultural centre for contemporary dance and performing art. “Dance: Meeting Korea” was a program with famous LDP (Laboratory Dance Project) and other groups from Korea (Seoul). Here you could join in original Korean 신명 with Company Blue Elephant (“Golden Helmet” Choreography: Jun In-Jung) and you could even meet Rilke (this time in German!) during “Memory in a Puzzle” from Dance Theatre Ccadoo (Choreographer: Park Ho-Bin). Coming from the literary space two things are striking: Team composition is international and the groups themselves are very much interconnected. They go abroad to learn something. Writers or poets go inside. But is that division true? The second point is that media artists have experience in different media. Even if they only write, they write for stage, TV, CD-ROM, screenplay... In these art ensembles there is collaboration among individuals and finally the production of a common product. “Memory in a Puzzle” among other things did stage genuine literature! Together with movements (dancing) and meanings (video) this created a field of experience from which each visitor could draw its own truth. By the way: Multitalent Lee Changdong, who is famous abroad for his films like “Peppermint Candy” and “Oasis” now is introduced to the German book market with his Die Sympathie der Goldfische (“Nockchonaen-n Dong-eh man-ta”), a Korean short novel ("Chungpyon").

In a symposium on “Democracy, Reunion and Peace in Germany and Korea” organizer Park Myung Lim from Yonsei Unversity stressed the quality and responsibility of Korea as an interface for the peace process in the context of the East Asian balance of power. As a small but centrally located partner Korea is in a position to become the diplomatic hub for the ongoing peace process. In fact it already is. The Korean organizers did avoid difficult issues under debate. That some invited North Korean authors did not join was disappointing for South Korean organizers and the German public as well. There was no doubt much sympathy among Germans for the modest presentation of Korea in Frankfurt. This invitation aimed at working as a “silent permeation” and “communication” of Korea, as Hwang Chi-Woo, general director of the organizing committee KOGAF, put it. The design of the campaign was one of sophisticated modesty from a country, who may be better than any other nation of the world embodies the past and future of the media of literature. Therefore the central exhibition space, tastefully designed by Prof. Yoon Young-Sub, was not only a presentation of Korean literature but an interactive space for open minds to reflect about the past and future of an art we still call “literature” with examples that span from the Tripitaka Koreana over contemporary printing to new hardware containers for ubiquitous content like smartphones. It was in the same mind that famous architect Seung-H Sang, who has an ongoing exhibition at Galerie Aedes in Berlin, speaks of a “Beauty of Poverty” and an “Architecture of Wisdom”. It is this ability to handle one’s own ambitions in a modest and open way, which qualifies Korean tradition for innovative yet human solutions in diplomacy as well as in architecture, art and literature and – I would hope – in bioscience as well. We may be have seen at Frankfurt an action shot of Korean culture and literature immediately before big changes in this field will take place. Exchange in the cultural field will multiply. Even then it is always worth to preserve one’s individual knowledge. Korean literature has it’s tradition and history. It is constantly transforming. But there are open questions: There is not much literature from Koreans abroad. Why is that so? At the same time Korean literature from Korea is promoted successfully with the support from the well known foundations. But it is still dependent on that support. It is my firm conviction that this will change in the not far future and especially with the young authors. But some of them will have a different experience. Look at Anna Kim. She was grown up in Vienna. She does not need support from LTI. She writes in German. Her German is something new especially for Germans! She created her own way, to use German for the pictures in her mind. She is an example. But an outstanding at the moment. Is her literature Korean? There is a Christian idiom that who wants to preserve will loose. What does this mean for national literatures in todays world? I would like to propose more exchange between writers from Germany and Korea. Not only weekends. 1-2 months at least. They will not speak the same language. But they will grasp some different experience and this will open their mind. This is in need for both sides. In Germany there are many foundations and academies for artists of different media. Take for example Akademie Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart. Take Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen near Münster. Korean writers can apply.

You all know about Maru, the semi-open space with wooden floor in the traditional Korean house. The Maru space of literature would be an open space with ideas and experiences passing by like the wind and sometimes – like the storm. But with an open mind and “no fear of chaos” (Kim Chi-Ha in Frankfurt).

Martin Wolf

Written for Korean Readers by order of Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo

Text & Bild: Martin Wolf

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