The event examines the literary significance of Seongbuk-gu's places as depicted in works by Park Kyong-ni and Park Wan-suh, tracing the district's historical and literary footprint from the Joseon era to the modern age
Seoul's Seongbuk-gu will host the 3rd Seongbuk Literary Academic Seminar on Nov. 27, starting at 1 p.m. at Seongbuk Art Hall on the fourth floor of the Seongbuk-gu District Office.
The seminar, themed "Seongbuk: A Literary History of Place and Memory," will examine the district's historical spaces and literary traces from the Joseon era through the modern period, and explore ways to preserve and make use of the area's literary heritage.
Co-organized by the Seongbuk Museum of Modern Literature and the HK3.0 Research Institute at Korea University's International Institute of Korean Language and Culture, the event will focus on how Seongbuk appears in the works of modern writers such as Park Kyong-ni and Park Wan-suh, and what literary meaning those places carry.
The seminar will be divided into two sessions, featuring a total of six presentations followed by discussions.
The first session will address Seongbuk's historical spaces and literary memories. Kwon Eun, a researcher at Hanyang University, will use a digital literary map to examine the landscape outside Dongso Gate as depicted in literature. Park Young-jae of Korea University will present on the sense of place in Seongbuk during the Joseon era. Na Yun-ji of the Seongbuk Museum of Modern Literature will propose approaches to collecting materials and making them available to the public.
The second session will focus on the relationship between modern literature and Seongbuk. Cho Yun-jeong of Kookmin University will analyze how Seongbuk's sense of place appears in works by Park Kyong-ni and Park Wan-suh. Lee Jong-ho of Korea University will trace the history of literary education after Korea's liberation, centering on Seorabeol College of Arts and its literary journal "Seorabeol Munhak." Yeo Tae-cheon of Dongduk Women's University will present on the poetics of seclusion, loss and hope set against the backdrop of Seongbuk.
The seminar is notable for treating the places that appear in literary works not merely as settings, but as cultural heritage in which the district's history and lived experience have accumulated.
It will serve as a forum to discuss how the literary memories embedded in Seongbuk can be documented, preserved and shared with residents — going beyond the study of individual authors and their works.
The event will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, contact the Seongbuk Museum of Modern Literature.
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