Reading the Korean Cultural Landscape


Book Description

Cultural geography remains an uncommon field of study in Korea. However, Dr. Ryu here demonstrates the extent of its usefulness as a tool in seeking a new vision. He adapts his deep experience in cultural geography to Korea, with its long history of over 5,000 years and the complexity of its cultural phenomena. The author presents the many facets of the Korean landscape, with religious, folk, linguistic, rural and urban aspects examined. This is a book that reveals many interesting dynamics within the urban and rural environment, from the the village, to the town,




P'ungsu


Book Description

This book is a milestone in the history of academic research on the development and role of geomancy (fengshui in Chinese and p'ungsu in Korean) in Korean culture and society. As the first interdisciplinary work of its kind, it investigates many topics in geomancy studies that have never been previously explored, and contains contributions from a number of disciplines including geography, historical studies, environmental science, architecture, landscape architecture, religious studies, and psychoanalysis. While almost all books in English about geomancy are addressed to general readers as practical guides for divining auspicious locations, P'ungsu is a work of rigorous scholarship that documents, analyzes, and explains past and current practices of geomancy. Its readers will better understand the impact of geomancy on the Korean cultural landscape and appreciate the significant ecological principles embedded in the geomantic traditions of Korea; while researchers will discover new insights and inspirations for future research on geomancy not only in Korea, but in China and elsewhere.




The Culture of Fengshui in Korea


Book Description

The term Fengshui, which literally means 'wind and water, ' is the ancient Chinese art of selecting an auspicious site to provide the most harmonious relationship between human and earth. The term is generally translated as "geomancy," and has had a deep and extensive impact on Korean, Chinese, and other East Asian cultures. Hong-key Yoon's book explores the nature of geomantic principles and the culture of practicing them in Korean cultural contexts. Yoon first examines the nature and historical background of geomancy, geomantic principles for auspicious sites (houses, graves, and cities) and provides an interpretation of geomantic principles as practiced in Korea. Yoon looks at geomancy's influence on cartography, religion and philosophy, and urban development in both Korea and China. Finally, Yoon debates the role of geomancy in the iconographical warfare between Japanese colonialism and Korean nationalism as it affected the cultural landscape of Kyongbok Palace in Seoul.




The Korean Popular Culture Reader


Book Description

Over the past decade, Korean popular culture has become a global phenomenon. The "Korean Wave" of music, film, television, sports, and cuisine generates significant revenues and cultural pride in South Korea. The Korean Popular Culture Reader provides a timely and essential foundation for the study of "K-pop," relating the contemporary cultural landscape to its historical roots. The essays in this collection reveal the intimate connections of Korean popular culture, or hallyu, to the peninsula's colonial and postcolonial histories, to the nationalist projects of the military dictatorship, and to the neoliberalism of twenty-first-century South Korea. Combining translations of seminal essays by Korean scholars on topics ranging from sports to colonial-era serial fiction with new work by scholars based in fields including literary studies, film and media studies, ethnomusicology, and art history, this collection expertly navigates the social and political dynamics that have shaped Korean cultural production over the past century. Contributors. Jung-hwan Cheon, Michelle Cho, Youngmin Choe, Steven Chung, Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Stephen Epstein, Olga Fedorenko, Kelly Y. Jeong, Rachael Miyung Joo, Inkyu Kang, Kyu Hyun Kim, Kyung Hyun Kim, Pil Ho Kim, Boduerae Kwon, Regina Yung Lee, Sohl Lee, Jessica Likens, Roald Maliangkay, Youngju Ryu, Hyunjoon Shin, Min-Jung Son, James Turnbull, Travis Workman




Korean Landscape Painting


Book Description

Unlike Western paintings, which mostly depict natural surroundings as they are, oriental paintings depict not only the landscape but also thoughts or perspectives of painters upon the landscape. Korean Landscape Painting discusses the art form beginning at its earliest roots two millennia ago, in the Three Kingdoms period, right up until the 20th century. Accompanied by many maps and pictures, as well as a glossary of names and terms, this book provides a complete overview of Korean landscape painting and offers a perfect introduction.




K-architecture


Book Description

This book offers an exploration of the lesser-known aspects of this dynamically changing field, starting with a look at the paradigmatic forms of traditional architecture before moving on to examining the issues and currents that have unfolded in architecture as it developed on Korean soil in the era of postmodernism?and began to find its way into the world. By taking a historical approach with the more noteworthy developments in Korean architecture, it seeks to support a new understanding, a rediscovery, of a field in full flux. Bustling Cities, Rising Architecture Rediscovering Korean Architecture Taking the Global Stage The History of Korean Architecture Stone Pagodas and Temple Architecture The Beauty of Column-head Brackets and Entasis Humble Spaces in Harmony with Nature East Meets West; Tradition Meets Modernity Korean Spirit Embodied in Traditional Architecture Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple Janggyeongpanjeon Hall at Haeinsa Temple Changdeokgung Palace Jongmyo Shrine Yangdong Village Soswaewon Garden Dosan Seowon and Byeongsan Seowon Confucian Academies Hwaseong Fortress Seongyojang House Korean Modernism and Its Legacies Two Giants of Korean Modernism The 4.3 Group and Architectural Humanities Standing at the Boundary of Korean and Global Pushing the Envelope: New Ideas and Experiments Beyond the “City of Rooms” A New Housing Culture between the Beehives Evolution of Korean Modernism Landscape Architecture and the Transforming Cityscape Reinterpretation of Hanok




Transnational Hallyu


Book Description

While the influence of Western, Anglophone popular culture has continued in the global cultural market, the Korean cultural industry has substantially developed and globally exported its various cultural products, such as television programs, pop music, video games and films. The global circulation of Korean popular culture is known as the Korean wave, or Hallyu. Given its empirical scope and theoretical contributions, this book will be highly appealing to any scholar or student interested in media globalization and contemporary Asia popular culture. These chapters present the evolution of Hallyu as a transnational process and addresses two distinctive aspects of the recent Hallyu phenomenon - digital technology integration and global reach. This book will be the first monograph to comprehensively and comparatively examine the translational flows of Hallyu through extensive field studies conducted in the US, Canada, Chile, Spain and Germany.




Korean Traditional Landscape Architecture


Book Description

Thirteen writers collaborated to guide readers on a journey through Korean Traditional Landscape Architecture to highlight the excellence of this Korean cultural heritage as well as the traditional Korean aesthetic and worldview. Of note, there is also a glossary section that helps to explain basic concepts and principles, technical terms, and various proper nouns for general readers as well as those with an in-depth interest in the subject.




Korean Patterns


Book Description




The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories


Book Description

‘An ever-surprising and stylistically diverse anthology that will surely stand as the touchstone collection of Korean literature for decades to come’ Literary Review This eclectic, moving and wonderfully enjoyable collection is the essential introduction to Korean literature. Journeying through Korea's dramatic twentieth century, from the Japanese occupation and colonial era to the devastating war between North and South and the rapid, disorienting urbanization of later decades, The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories captures a hundred years of Korea's vibrant short-story tradition. Here are peddlers and donkeys travelling across moonlit fields; artists drinking and debating in the tea-houses of 1920s Seoul; soldiers fighting for survival; exiles from the war who can never go home again; and lonely men and women searching for connection in the dizzying modern city. The collection features stories by some of Korea's greatest writers, including Pak Wanso, O Chonghui and Cho Chongnae, as well as many brilliant contemporary voices, such as P'yon Hyeyong, Han Yujoo and Kim Aeran. Curated by Bruce Fulton, this is a volume that will surprise, unsettle and delight. Edited by Bruce Fulton With an introduction by Kwon Youngmin