Leiden University, The Netherlands, 4-8 October 2010
Within the framework of the research project “History as Social Process: unconventional historiographies of Korea,” sponsored by the Academy of Korean Studies, the Korean Studies Department of Leiden University, The Netherlands, will organize a one-week intensive course for graduate students on the various ways representations of history are created, maintained or changed through novels, poetry, films, television dramas, etc., which interact in complex patterns with the historiography of professional historians and public opinion.
One part of the research project is the e-journal Korean Histories. Please refer to www.historyassocialprocess.org for the particulars of the research project. Faculty members of the research project are Professor Boudewijn Walraven, Dr Koen De Ceuster, Dr Remco Breuker, and postdoctoral fellow Jungshim Lee.
The theme of this year’s masterclass is forging and forgeries.
Using forgeries as an unconventional source for the writing of history, the masterclass will look at forging as a means of approaching possible truths or possible realities. As such, it will approach forging and forgeries as creative means to approximate unrealized or potential realities, in particular with regard to the ever-tense way in which the past is thought to influence the present and the present deals with the past: forgeries may serve as critical tools to censure reality and to construct potential -– or: forged -– realities.
The masterclass will look at several kinds of forgeries and their social and historical roles in Korean history: textual forgeries such as the Ten Injunctions, Hwarang segi and Tan’gun kogi; religious forgeries such as Buddhist apocrypha; social/genealogical forgeries such as chokpo; scientific forgeries such as the research of Hwang Usŏk. The masterclass simultaneously aims to widen the field of forgery by including categories usually not considered forgeries, but which can be shown to be morphologically related to the above-mentioned forgeries in the sense that these categories, too, try to realize potential realities by creatively dealing with the past. These categories include historical movies and historical novels, both of which select established truths, anxieties, hopes and fears; exaggerate and magnify them through a historical filter that is focused on the present; and present a result that does everything to convince the audience that it is the past he/she is looking at, while stressing messages that nonetheless relate to the audience’s present.
The course will involve active participation by the students, who will be asked to write a 1500-word discussion paper on an issue related to the topic of the course before they come to Leiden. The choice of the issues to be dealt with will be determined in consultation with the teacher of the course.
Participation in the course will also allow students to attend the Second AKS-Leiden Colloquium, in September. Guest speaker at the Colloquium is Professor Ken Wells (Berkeley).
If so desired, ways will be sought to extend credits for participation in consultation with students’ home institutions.
Participation in the course is free, but limited to 16 students. For each student, a maximum subvention of € 400 will be available to assist with expenses for travel and accommodation. Interested graduate students are advised to apply as soon as possible, so that accommodation may be arranged, but the final deadline for application is 15 August.
For further information and to apply, please write to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .