Return of Myth, Myth Resources, and the Nowness of Mythology in Korea and China Today
Nowadays, myth is being used as a kind of cultural resource. Myth has been the source of inspiration for creating literature and art in the past as well, but with globalization and rapidly-changing media environment, the modes of myth resourcization have become more complex and diversified in the 21st century. This talk will introduce the concepts that emerged in the mythological circles of Korea and China under these circumstances such as the "return of myth," "neo-mythologism," and "mythologism", examine a few examples of myth being utilized as resources to get a glimpse of the economic, academic, and national desires that can be found in the myth resourcization, as well as finding possibilities for new creation that is beyond these desires, and discuss how we should understand the "nowness of mythology."
RSVP REQUIRED. This is a hybrid event, with in-person attendance restricted to Stanford affiliates (ID holders) ONLY ( East Asia Library Room 224). Members of the public can join us for this talk via Zoom.
About the speaker
Yoonhee Hong is an associate professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Yonsei University, South Korea, specializing in Chinese mythology. She received her MA and Ph.D from Yonsei University. She is the author of Dragons, Chinese People and the Silk Road (Seoul, 2013), which was named the Outstanding Academic Books of 2014 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Korea. Her other publications include Korean translation of Bruce Lincoln's Theorizing Myth(2009), Yuan Ke's History of Chinese Mythology(2010), “Searching for the Nowness of Mythology : From the ‘Return of Myth’ to ‘Mythologism’”(Xibei Minzu Yanjiu, Northwestern Journal of Ethnology, 2021), and “Current State of the Discussion on Chinese Myth Resources”(Chungguk hakpo The Journal of Chinese Studies, 2021.) In 2021, funded by the LG Yeonam Foundation, she is currently working as visiting professor conducting research on “the nowness of Chinese mythology from the perspective of mediality” in collaboration with Prof. Mark Bender at Ohio State University.