Science Fiction and East Asia

Science fiction has long been considered primarily as a Western cultural genre. With the rise of global science fiction studies, however, we have discovered diverse traditions of science fiction around the world. USC’s East Asian Library invites the members of USC and its neighboring academic communities to the closing event for its exhibition of the South Korean SF and Fantasy Collection. The exhibition presents a new historical outline of sixty years of science fiction in one of the most technologically saturated societies in the world through a curated display of literary works, DVDs, comic books, magazines, exhibition catalogs, promotional booklets, and more. The day’s event will bring together three researchers of Anglophone and Korean science fiction who are also translators of South Korean SF stories: Sang-Keun Yoo (Marist College), Jaewuk Kim (USC), and Sunyoung Park (USC). During their presentations, panelists will discuss issues such as the representation of traditional East Asian religious thoughts in Anglophone and Asian SF, Korean translations and adaptations of Western SF, South Korean SF’s utopian aspirations and its thought experiments on race, gender, and sexuality, and the entanglements between the posthuman, the human, and the non-human in the SF stories of the new millennium. The presentations will also highlight the work of two major South Korean SF writers, Changgyu Kim and Djuna, whose stories are increasingly made available in English translation. For this celebratory occasion, refreshments will be provided to all participants.

Sponsors: Korean Heritage Library, USC Libraries, East Asian Studies Center, and Korean Studies Institute

Event Schedule

11:00 - 11:05 am    Jungeun Hong (Korean Heritage Library), Welcoming Remark
11:05 – 11:10 am    Sunyoung Park, Opening Remark
11:10 - 11:40 am    Sang-Keun Yoo, "The Tao of Science Fiction: Buddha and Lao Tzu in Anglophone and Asian Science Fiction"
11:40 - 12:00 pm   Jaewuk Kim, “Intersubjective Love: Embracing Human Imperfection in Kim Changyu’s Post-Singularity Stories”
12:00 - 12:20 pm   Sunyoung Park, “Cyborg Feminism, Posthuman Evolution, and Postmodern Liberation: Djuna’s Everything Good Dies Here” 
12:20 - 12:50 pm   Q& A