Teacher's Day: DIS, this time

Ewha DIS Student Council

Another Teachers' Day message today, these nice words courtesy of students in the Division of International Studies:

Hello Professor Hodges, 

We would like to express our gratitude to you for Teacher's Day. Thank you very much  for your lectures. Because you are here, we students are able to learn and grow every day. Please stay around for long so that we can thank you in the many years to come.

18th DIS Student Council

They can have me till I'm 65, four more years, then comes forced retirement, and I'm out of a job . . .

Small wonder I scare folks off . . .

Lookin' bedraggled

Photo by YoungYeah Hong

. . . if I often look like I did at last evening's GLEO festivities, following a long business meeting. We used to be the EPO, under the previous administration, but as this year's Nobel Literature winner once put it, "The times, they are a-changin' . . ."

That Dread Time of the Year . . .

Time for Review

Google Books

I'm coming up for review soon, so I was asked to offer a list of articles, stories, and poems I've published over the past academic year, and because making the list and copies of each document took so much time that I couldn't expend much remaining time on today's blog, I've decided to simply show interested readers the list:

Research Performance

Publications - Horace Jeffery Hodges, Ph.D.

2015 "The Uncanny Story," Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, Edited by Carter Kaplan (Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2015) (Forthcoming in August).

2015 "The Peach/Apple in John Milton's Paradise Lost, Andrew Marvell's 'The Garden,' and T. S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock': Etymology and Sin," The Journal of the Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Association of Korea, Volume 23, No. 2 (2015) (Coauthored with Salwa Khoddam) (Forthcoming in August).

2015 "Milton's Astronomy and the Seasons of Paradise: Queries Motivated by Alastair Fowler's Views," Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, Vol. 24, Number 1 (2014/2015), 88-104.

2014 "Horace Jeffery Hodges (poems)," Emanations: Foray into Forever, Edited by Carter Kaplan (Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2014), 263-266.

2014 "Literature and National Community: The United States and the Case of Stephen Vincent Benét" (Invited Speaker), Proceedings of the Byeng-ju Lee International Literary Festival 2014 (Hadong-Gun: Byeng-ju Lee Memorial Society, Fall 2014).

2014 "The Mis-Education of Horace Hodges" (Invited Speaker), Proceedings: Storytelling – Trauma, Healing, and Pedagogy (Seoul: Research Institute for Storytelling at Chung-Ang University, Fall 2014).

2014 Shin Chae-ho, Dream Sky, translated by Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Fall 2014).

2014 Yang Geon-sik, Sad Contradiction, translated by Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Fall 2014).

2014 "True Translation?" (Keynote Speech), The Role of Translators and Literary Agents in Globalizing Korean Literature, The 13th International Workshop for Translation and publication of Korean Literature, June 20, 2014 (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, 2014).

I was surprised at the number when I'd counted them up, though some were merely published in the proceedings of some conference or such, so don't be impressed by nine publications.

Ah, Spring, when one's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of . . . contract review!

Ewha Womans University

View of Chapel from ECC

Wikipedia

I'll be coming up this semester for contract renewal . . . or not. Either way, I have to update my publications list for the past year, so I've added the following:

2015 "The Uncanny Story," Emanations: 2 + 2 = 5, Edited by Carter Kaplan (Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2015) (Forthcoming).

2015 "Milton's Astronomy and the Seasons of Paradise: Queries Motivated by Alastair Fowler's Views," Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, Vol. 24, Number 1 (2014/2015), 88-104.

2014 "Horace Jeffery Hodges (poems)," Emanations: Foray into Forever, Edited by Carter Kaplan (Brookline, MA: International Authors, 2014), 263-266.

2014 "Literature and National Community: The United States and the Case of Stephen Vincent Benét" (Invited Speaker), Proceedings of the Byeng-ju Lee International Literary Festival 2014 (Hadong-Gun: Byeng-ju Lee Memorial Society, Fall 2014).

2014 "The Mis-Education of Horace Hodges" (Invited Speaker), Proceedings: Storytelling – Trauma, Healing, and Pedagogy (Seoul: Research Institute for Storytelling at Chung-Ang University, Fall 2014).

2014 Shin Chae-ho, Dream Sky, translated by Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Fall 2014).

2014 Yang Geon-sik, Sad Contradiction, translated by Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Fall 2014).

2014 "True Translation?" (Keynote Speech), The Role of Translators and Literary Agents in Globalizing Korean Literature, The 13th International Workshop for Translation and publication of Korean Literature, June 20, 2014 (Seoul: Literature Translation Institute of Korea, 2014).

Three of these are 'published' in "Proceedings" of some conference or other and thus won't count for much - though one of them will soon be published in a journal, which should count for something

Let's keep our fingers crossed! Unless you're against me and won't be using your index finger . . .

Ewha Writing Intensive Seminar (EWIS) - One Student's Feedback

Brain Science
"To get ahead, you gotta have connections!"

Here is some feedback from one of my EWIS students - a wonderful student who worked very hard improving her brain science article:

I am sure your class is the best English class that I've ever taken. While making [my] portfolio [now], I am feeling a sense of satisfaction for the article. There are so many corrections. Even though it differs . . . [from] your field, I am impressed [by] your interest in my article. Through the . . . [corrections,] I le[a]rned a lot . . . . I think writing a good article is the hardest thing in the world. I didn't even know that great writing skill . . . in English is the most important qualification to be a good scientist . . . . I realized that in order to write a good article it is important to read a lot, think a lot and write a lot. I've been learning a lot from you . . . . I already miss our EWIS class [now that it's over]. I feel like . . . I should write a new paragraph and attend the class tomorrow morning! . . . Thank [you] for [the] EWIS class.

Other students also wrote kind emails to me, but this student said the nicest things. I call her a "student," but she finished her doctorate in biology last year, so I suppose she's really more of a colleague.

Ewha Womans University

Ewha Womans University

My copy of Emanations arrived yesterday, and the poetry I submitted seems unaltered, but upon checking my bio, I see that some editor 'corrected' what I'd written. In place of "Ewha Womans University" was "Ewha Woman's University"!

That's an understandable 'correction' . . . but it's wrong.

I'll really have to insist that editors check with me before 'correcting' what I've written. This sort of thing happens with various publications, though usually when my name "Jeffery" gets misspelled "Jeffrey."

The Emanations anthology, anyway, is excellent, as you can see for yourself.

EWIS Summer Class Over

EWIS Students Laughing at/with Me

Six of my ten EWIS students were able to go with me for coffee at the ECC Starbucks on Tuesday -- bringing along some contraband doughnuts supplied by the EPO -- and these acronyms have gone far enough! Spelled out:

EWIS = Ewha Writing-Intensive School

ECC = Ewha Campus Complex

EPO = English Program Office

The photo was sent to me by the woman in the far-right corner. I think she already has her doctorate, and I know she works in the Forensic Anthropological Laboratory and Department of Anatomy, where she is an expert at estimating body mass based on the wear and tear of ankle bones on skeletons. Or that's my guess judging from the article she was working on in class.

The woman in the blue dress is leaving for the US next Monday for a doctoral program in women's studies, if I recall. She was a good addition to my course because we read about Korean identity, and she had already given it a lot of thought over the years in the history classes she had attended, and she also had a lot of insightful things to say about the need for a culture of discussion in Korea, a topic we also read on in my course.

The remaining students in the photo were undergrads, with the three on the left all coming from the Division of International Studies (DIS) at Ewha, and the one on the right coming from the States, where she studies as a pre-med student. The student closest to the camera had perfect attendance, something for her to take pride in since no one else managed that! All four of the undergrads speak good English and therefore also contributed well to the discussion topics.

For that matter, so did everyone in the course, including the four who couldn't make the coffee klatch . . .

EWIS = Ewha Writing-Intensive School - Begins Wednesday, June 25

EWIS Work During a Previous EWIS Course
EPO

Now that the excitement of the workshop at the Seoul International Book Fair is over, I'm back to the daily grind, but I enjoy teaching EWIS to graduate students, for they really appreciate advice on writing. Here's what I'm doing starting Wednesday:

Syllabus

Ewha Writing Intensive School
Horace Jeffery Hodges

We will meet four days (M-Th) per week from 9 to 12 each day for four weeks (June 25 - July 22), with two short breaks every day dividing each class time into three sessions, 1) Discussion, 2) Lesson on Writing Skills, and 3) In-Class Writing Practice, as shown below:

Time: 3 hours and an optional office hour. (4 days a week: 4 weeks)

Daily Schedule

1st hour

Discussion
Analysis of Writing Samples:
Magazines, Journals, Books, etc.

2nd hour

Lecture on Writing Skills
Lessons on the Mechanics of Writing:
Grammar/Syntax/Structure/
Organization/Style/Coherency/
Analysis of Student Writings.

3rd hour

In-Class Writing Practice
Application of Lessons:
Outline and Draft Creation/Peer
editing/Instructor feedback/
Review of Student Writings.

Office Hour (optional)

One on One feedback
This is an optional session. Students can visit the instructor for a brief individual session.

(Note short breaks between class sessions)
We will not rigidly adhere to this schedule, but remain flexible enough to meet students’ needs.

Week 1: Sentences and Paragraphs

Wordiness
The Argumentative Edge
The Thesis Machine
Introductory Paragraph
Middle Paragraph
Concluding Paragraph

Reading for Discussion: To Be Announced Later

Week 2: Entire Essay

Complete Essay
The Need for Novelty

Reading for Discussion: "Korean Identity" - Hodges (10 pages)

Week 3: Entire Essay with Citations and Bibliography

Reading for Discussion: "Points Toward a Culture of Discussion" - Hodges (16 pages)

Week 4: Entire Essay with Citations and Bibliography

Reading for Discussion: "Points Toward a Culture of Discussion" - Hodges (16 pages)

The aim of the course will be to work on a research paper with either MLA style or APA style (though science students can use the ASA style). Googling "OWL Purdue" will introduce you to these styles.

Materials for Course:

There will be no textbook, but handouts will be provided. You will need to bring a laptop computer to class each day (keep the batteries charged) since we will work every day on writing. From each student, I will need an email address.

My Qualifications:

If I'm allowed to exaggerate, I've been teaching writing for nearly 40 years! At seventeen, I was once asked by my high school English teacher to grade and correct the essays for his tenth grade class. My career perhaps started then, but I didn't work as grader and corrector of essays again until my senior year at Baylor University, when I was twenty-one and worked for two semesters doing that. I left Baylor with a BA in English literature, but studied history at UC Berkeley for my MA and PhD. As a graduate student, I taught undergraduates from the time I was 23 until I finished my doctorate, and I've been teaching writing courses regularly ever since.

I've tried to find time to write a bit myself, and I've published over thirty articles in the humanities (using MLA, APA, and CMS styles), around twenty-five poems, about five short stories, and one novella. In my pursuit of graduate and postdoctoral studies on various scholarships, e.g., Fulbright, Friedrich Naumann, and Golda Meir fellowships, I have also done a lot of writing, primarily academic pieces. I have worked editing my wife's translations of Korean literature on grants offered by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, along with other editing work for various scholarly journals, all of which entails a lot of rewriting other people's work. Finally, I have worked for the Daesan Foundation as a judge of Korean literature in English translation, which requires me to offer some editorial remarks about translations that need some touching up.

Those are my qualifications, I reckon . . .

And I have to prepare myself for Wednesday, which explains why I'm posting on this today . . .

English Program Office Professors Posing Before the Ewha Campus Complex

Posed Before ECC
See Google Images
See Dominique Perrault Site

We had just proctored final exams Wednesday and were on our way to eat in the local Baita Italian restaurant when one of us who's leaving decided to have a photo made as an Ewha student was conveniently passing by and got waylaid into snapping the picture for us.

In case you don't recognize me, I'm on the right wing of the picture from your perspective and the penultimate person standing there, the man squinting into the sun.

That's all for today, for I'm off to present my 'keynote' address . . .

Ewha Voice on My Literary Reading

Ewha Voice
Photo by Chung Yun-jo

As you see, my reading was covered by the Ewha Voice, the student newspaper for Ewha Womans University. Reporter Yoon Hye-joon, in "English Lounge hosts literary reading on The Bottomless Bottle of Beer" (Ewha Voice, December 1, 2013), described it as "a free literary reading [by me] with slide illustrations . . . . by Terrance Lindall, a well-known artist and illustrator." Ms. Yoon very effectively sums up the plot to The Bottomless Bottle of Beer:

The novella is based on Goethe's Faust and other various stories. The basic storyline is about a naive young man who sells his soul for a bottomless bottle of beer. However, the man misunderstands the meaning of the "bottomless bottle" of beer, and the misunderstanding leads him to sign a contract in blood with the devil.

Those other stories are Paradise Lost, The Master and Margarita, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and more. Ms. Yoon had interviewed me before the reading, inquiring about my inspiration:

Professor Hodges states that there is no special source of inspiration: He starts writing, continues to write, and once the writing is finished, he had a story. "I find that I have a story to tell, and as I am writing, ideas come," professor Hodges said. "There is always some rewriting to do, of course."

Ms. Yoon also interviewed the woman who introduced me:

"The book reading by professor Hodges was a lot of fun," professor Lee Soo-kyung (English Program Office) said. "I have read the book but hearing it live by the author and seeing the illustrations simultaneously was a different experience."

There's more at the Ewha Voice webpage, for anyone interested, and I add that I'm grateful for the publicity (and, of course, there's YouTube).

Bottomless Bottle of Beer Reading

I gave my reading yesterday evening to a small but friendly audience of about 25 people. More students might have come, but I had some unexpected competition: Running Man. SBS was filming the show on Ewha's campus and even in the ECC itself, and since the show's regulars are celebrities, a large crowd of students were gathered in our building to see the popular comedian Yoo Jae-suk compete with his fellow celebrities to avoid capture while seeking some quested treasure. Ironically, and much to my dismay, the show's filming was slated for precisely the same time as my reading! But the shows must go on . . .

My wife Sun-Ae took the photos and first caught me approaching the Lounge:

She next photographed me waiting for people to arrive:

Then came a photo of me preparing:

And chatting with early arrivals:

Finally, the reading itself . . . while looking down, apparently around the beginning since that slide's the book cover:

Still reading . . . reciting, while looking up:

After that photo, Sun-Ae relaxed and enjoyed the performance. She says I read well, and since she's my best critic, she must be right, but I'll wait until I see the video to judge for myself, and if that recording is good enough, we'll put it on YouTube for all interested to see.

Until then, thanks for the interest . . .

The Bottomless Bottle of Beer: Completed Poster Announcing Book Reading

As you see, I now have an image of the finished poster. An entire stack of them arrived yesterday afternoon, and many of these have already been put up around Ewha campus. If you can't read the words as they appear (and who can), just click on the image to enlarge, though these words simply repeat what I stated yesterday morning as being written on the poster.

If you live in Seoul, but don't know the ECC building, then go to yesterday's post and get the more complete directions there.

Announcement: A Reading From My Novella on November 26

"Literary Reading Announcement!"

What: Professor Horace Jeffery Hodges will give a free literary reading
with slide illustrations from his recently published novella,
The Bottomless Bottle of Beer.

Where: The reading will take place in the English Lounge, ECC B235.

When: The reading will be on Tuesday, the 26th of November,
beginning at 5:00 p.m. and taking about 35 to 40 minutes.

For More About The Novella:

Amazon
Facebook

All of the details above are actually on the poster itself, but the image is a PDF,
and I don't know how to convert it to a JPG.

Any readers of this blog who can attend the performance are welcome to come.

Be aware that the ECC is conceived as an underground building,
with the top floor consisting of the B100 rooms,
so the second floor from the top is where B235 is found.

Enter Ewha campus from the front gate,
go straight ahead to the ECC,
and enter the righthand side.

The ECC is the Ewha Campus Complex:

Baum Architects

Described Here.

Designed by Dominique Perrault

Science and Humanities . . . Together!

Professor Choe Jae-chun
Photo by Kim Myung-sub
The Korea Herald

Professor Choe Jae-chun, interviewed by Oh Kyu-wook in "An evangelist of science, humanities convergence" (The Korea Herald, August 8, 2013), reminds me why I chose history of science for my graduate degrees:

Choe's talent crosses disciplines. The renowned animal behavior expert, ecologist and bio-sociologist has built a career far beyond the stereotypes of a scientist.

He first came to prominence in 2005 by introducing Korea to the concept of consilience -- linking together principles from different disciplines -- after translating "Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge" (1998) by Edward O. Wilson, the doyen of sociobiology, under whom he studied at Harvard.

Trumpeted as a map to a Theory of Everything, Wilson's magnum opus describes the synthesis of knowledge from different fields and gave a fresh impetus to interdisciplinary studies in Korea's academia in which high walls divided natural, social and human sciences, blocking collaboration and progression.

I'm totally in favor of cross-disciplinary communication, even collaboration when possible, but the risk is that one discipline will attempt to dominate (and guess which one when sociobiology's one of the disciplines!). At its best, however, the cross-disciplinary effort is uplifting:

Choe was named a junior fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows and taught at the University of Michigan from 1992 to 1994. He said his three years in Michigan were among the best times of his life.

"There were about 12 junior fellows, all with different backgrounds, when I was there. We had lunch together every Wednesday, and every time we discussed different subjects."

"One day we brought up the question of why the middle class exists. We couldn't finish the discussion after lunch and continued it until 2 a.m. the next morning."

He said he realized the importance of integrated studies while discussing more than 200 subjects with his fellow scholars.

"I really miss that time. I wish we could do the same thing here," he said.

Although I never took part in a discussion that lasted fourteen hours, I've often participated in long, wide-ranging conversation on various topics, both as an undergraduate student in Baylor University's Honors Program and as a graduate student in UC Berkeley's History of Science Office, so I know very well what Professor Choe misses.

Sometime, perhaps, Professor Choe Jae-chun can preside over long conversations at Ewha Womans University, where he teaches, and if those conversation take place in English, I would hope to be there among the discussants . . .

Hyewon Ryu: "The Metropolitan Body in the Rise of the Early English Novel"

Intelligence
Google Images

A few years back, though not many, Professor Julie Choi here at Ewha Womans University asked if I could assist with one of her doctoral students in English literature, an especially gifted student, Ms. Hyewon Ryu (류혜원), who was working on the emergence of the English novel, and since I'm interested in literature, I agreed to serve as proofreader and occasional adviser.

That was a good decision, for I enjoyed working with Ms. Ryu, mostly offering editorial suggestions, but occasionally referring her to a book, e.g., Martin Jay's Downcast Eyes for the line Jay draws between Christianity's stress on God's clear, corrective vision of the individual and modern regulation of the body through observation that has been internalized. Whatever I might have contributed through such suggestions -- and there was little improvement for me to suggest -- Ms. Ryu recently submitted her thesis, "The Metropolitan Body in the Rise of the Early English Novel," and found it approved, making her now "Dr. Ryu." Here's the first paragraph of her "Abstract":

This thesis examines the eighteenth-century English novel in terms of the metropolitan body, molded in and by the discursive space of London. Viewing the body as both specific and collective, somatic and discursive, this thesis traces the interrelation between the construction of the novel and the body, particularly with regard to the city of London. The analysis is based upon the assumption that many strata coordinate the construction of the body as a nexus of discursive, spatial, and somatic operations. The eighteenth-century novel not only reflects the physicality of the body but shapes it through the production and consumption of discourses about the body. How the disruptive corporeality of the metropolitan body and its discipline configure the topography of London in the new form of the novel is the main concern of this thesis. Extending the Foucauldian framework of changing technologies of discipline, and incorporating the critique of everyday lived experience to the literary domain of the novel, this thesis views the structure of the eighteenth-century novel as corporeally and topographically figured.

Abstracts are always abstract. Her main point is an extension of Foucault's analysis of the way in which Modernity disciplined the body by subjecting it to continual observation, but she also draws upon the insights of Norbert Elias on the civilizing process. Now that I think of it, I ought to have directed her to Marcel Mauss's 1934 essay, "Techniques of the Body," in which he observes, "We no longer know how to squat." Well, I cannot think of everything, and perhaps not of this point in particular because, like modern folk everywhere, I'm too preoccupied with standing tall. Actually, I tend to slouch, but my teenage son, who stands straight, is working on disciplining my body by subjecting me to continual observation -- a domestic variant of Foucault's panopticon -- and correcting my slouching lack of discipline through his endless observations! Speaking of discipline and its lack, I've gotten off-topic. I wanted to add that despite the abstractness of Dr. Ryu's "Abstract," the thesis is in fact very easy to read -- well written, well supported, well done! And in spite of my inadequacies as informal adviser, Dr. Ryu mentions me in the "Acknowledgements":

I also appreciate the time and effort Horace Jeffery Hodges has spent carefully reviewing my thesis.

Dr. Ryu didn't really need much of my help, but anyway, if others out there are interested in the rise of the English novel, this thesis is a good place to start. I suppose it'll be in Ewha's library.

Oh, that image above! Ned Ward's London Spy is one of the early texts Dr. Ryu analyzes . . .

LTI Korea - "Encountering Korean Literature: A Personal Journey"

List: Books from Korea
Literature Translation Institute of Korea

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea recently requested a brief article from me for the Afterword section of their magazine List: Books from Korea, and my piece, "Encountering Korean Literature: A Personal Journey," has been published in the Summer issue (Volume 20, page 28), though it's not yet available online. For now, one needs the hard copy, excepting my readers, who can find the article here below:

Encountering Korean Literature: A Personal Journey

Horace J. Hodges

My first encounter with Korean literature came through a roundabout process that started in 1992. I was sitting on a train in Germany discussing literature with a Korean woman whom I had just happened to meet, having by chance sat down beside her. Specifically, we were talking about The Man without Qualities, the famous novel by the Austrian writer Robert Musil, and our discussion was so fascinating, we decided to get married and continue the conversation. Of course, I didn't tell her about 'our' decision for another year and a half.

She lived in Munich and I in Tübingen, but we took turns visiting nearly every weekend, and for three years in Germany, our conversation continued, as it had begun, in German, a second language for us both. However, I determined to become acquainted with Korean literature in English translation, so I asked her for a book to read. She managed to obtain a copy of Ch'oe In-hun's early novel, A Grey Man, which I read slowly in an attempt to gain as much insight as possible into Korean culture. Ironically, the protagonist was a man 'without qualities' wavering in the 1950s between Christianity and Communism, which I took to mean the choice between right or left, South or North, and I suppose I was correct. I attributed that political issue to the temporal setting of Korea in the fifties. Little did I realize that South Koreans would still be stuck on this dilemma in 2013.

In 1995, we married and spent two semesters in Korea teaching before leaving again for nearly five years on postdoctoral grants, returning to Korea shortly before the millennial celebrations at the onset of 2000. Only slowly did I get back into Korean literature, and that was when I was solicited to serve as a referee, later a judge, for the Daesan Foundation. As a referee, I evaluated sample English translations of Korean stories and plays, as well as poetry, and began developing a sense of what, in literary terms, Korea had to offer. I was especially taken with Park Wan-suh's autobiographical novel, Who Ate Up All the Shinga?, translated by Yu Young-nan and Stephen Epstein, who appreciated my close proofreading of their manuscript and invited me to dinner with them and the author herself. Later, as a judge for the Daesan Foundation's 2009 Translation Prize, I participated in choosing Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton's translation of Ch'oe Yun's story selection There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories by Ch'oe Yun, and I was privileged to meet the author and translators at the awards ceremony. As for the writings of Park Wan-suh and Ch'oe Yun, while these works were more complex than Ch'oe In-hun's Grey Man, I observed a similar concern with the right and the left in the struggle over the qualities of the Korean soul.

Meanwhile, my wife and I had gotten into translation work ourselves, at times sponsored by grants from the KLTI. For instance, we translated Jang Jung-il's selection of stories When Adam's Eyes Opened and Yi Gwang-su's novel The Soil, both supported by the KLTI and slated for publication this coming fall, if all goes according to schedule. These two works have been our greatest challenges thus far, but also thereby the most fulfilling, for we learned a great deal about translating literary texts through the endeavor itself, and the process has improved my own writing and conferred greater confidence upon me as a writer. In terms of themes, the two works are very different, of course. Jang Jung-il's stories touch upon Korea's political division, which was obviously not an issue for Yi Gwang-su, whose works were written under the Japanese occupation, but the latter was similarly obsessed with a search for authentic Korean qualities, and his literary legacy has been vigorously contested between right and left.

We can see this same search for genuine Korean qualities in the works of Hwang Sok-young, particularly his novel The Guest, where he attempts an exorcism of Christian right and Communist left in favor of traditional Korean shamanism as that which best informs the truest qualities of the Korean soul. Although my engagement with Korean literature continues in a roundabout fashion, I see that the first Korean literary work I read, about a grey man preoccupied with Korea's division, offered paradoxical insight into Korean culture as a culture caught upon a dilemma. That same divided Korea yet remains. Highlighting that division, Hwang Sok-young attempts a third way. In contrast, much recent Korean literature by younger writers appears to ignore the division and its ripple effects in the Korean soul, but I can't help wondering if this division is merely being studiously ignored in works such as Kim Young-ha's I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, and is thus present in its absence.

Horace J. Hodges is a professor of the EPO and DIS at Ewha Womans University, where he teaches composition and research methods, occasionally also history and theology. He has a doctorate in history from UC Berkeley and has published articles on history, political science, religious studies, and literary criticism. He is also a published writer and poet.

That's what I wrote, including the bio, except for one thing: my name. I wrote "Horace Jeffery Hodges." You see what happened to "Jeffery." It became "J." But I only use "J." with "H." As in "H. J. Hodges." If I have to use "Horace," I always write "Horace Jeffery," even if the rigid bureaucratic form specifies first name and middle initial.

Since my wife and I will be recognized as translators this autumn, when our translations of a couple of Korean books are scheduled for publication, I'd better get this 'nominal' issue straightened out.

Sample Research Paper Proposal

Fakeup

Benefit Cosmetics

I'm teaching a course on Academic English, and we're currently working on research paper proposals, which need to include a number of things: working title, overview of the topic, statement of purpose, hypothesis, methodology, anticipated problems, and a preliminary bibliography. I needed a simple one for my students, but couldn't find one, so I made a 'fake' proposal and used a new, genuine product in the cosmetics market: Fakeup!

Fakeup: The Marketing of Artificiality

Any new cosmetics product enters a very competitive market in which it must not only prove itself better than other products but also promote itself better. This paper will show how a new cosmetic product called attention to itself through a risky strategy of branding. The specific product is Benefit's Fakeup, a name chosen at the risk of emphasizing the product's artificiality that in fact branded the product so noticeably in the cosmetics market that the product succeeded precisely because of this unusual name. This paper will draw upon accessible records of Benefit Cosmetics concerning its marketing strategy, email interviews with Benefit's public relations representatives, examples from Benefit's advertising campaign, the reviews of cosmetics columnists, the response of consumers, and any academics studies already done. As with any research about consumer products, the difficulty will lie in limiting the sources, but a sharpened thesis will help in selecting both original and secondary sources.

[The Bibliography is below, first in APA format, then in MLA format.]

References

Benefit Cosmetics. (2012). Fakeup hydrating crease-control concealer. Benefit San Francisco. Retrieved from http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/product/view/fakeup
Benefit cosmetics fake up. (March 9, 2013). Daily Vanity. http://dailyvanity.com/read/beauty-product-reviews/concealer-review-benefit-cosmetics-fake-up/
Fake it 'til you make it. (February 26, 2013). The Zoe Report. Retrieved from http://www.thezoereport.com/benefit-fake-up-concealer/
Merskin, D. (May 2007). Truly toffee and raisin hell: A textual analysis of lipstick names. Sex Roles, 56(9-10), 591-600. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-007-9201-9?LI=true
Schallon, L. (January 29, 2013). Behind the scenes at Benefit Cosmetics' Fake Up launch party. Style Bistro. Retrieved from http://www.stylebistro.com/Beauty+News/articles/y__hWlQST0t/Behind+Scenes+Benefit+Cosmetics+Fake+Up+Launch

Works Cited

Benefit Cosmetics. "Fakeup Hydrating Crease-Control Concealer." Benefit San Francisco. Web. 2012.
"Benefit Cosmetics Fake Up." Daily Vanity. Web. 9 March 2013.
"Fake It 'Til You Make It." The Zoe Report. Web. 26 February 2013.
Merskin, Debra. "Truly Toffee and Raisin Hell: A Textual Analysis of Lipstick Names." Sex Roles 56.9-10 (May 2007): 591-600. Web.
Schallon, Lindsay. "Behind the Scenes at Benefit Cosmetics' Fake Up Launch party." Style Bistro. Web. 29 January 2013.

Unfortunately, I can't format it properly on Blogger, but this gives you an idea of what I made up for class yesterday . . .

Coffee with my EWIS Students . . .

EWIS Graduate Student Composition Class

Tuesday the 22nd was the final day of the course I've been teaching for the past five weeks in a writing program called the Ewha Writing-Intensive School (EWIS), so I treated my students to coffee at the Starbucks on level B4 of the Ewha Campus Complex (ECC), a convenient location since the course took place on level B1, and we therefore needed only to ride the elevator down and then walk across the enormous hallway to the other side of the ECC, thereby avoiding the wet, dismal, cold outdoors.

Perhaps you'd appreciate an introduction? Counterclockwise, starting at the near left, are Sulgi, Jeonghyun, Hyun-Kyung, EunBin, Mr. Grim Teacher, So Young, Shokhan, and Farah. Except for the last two, all the students were Korean. Shokhan and Farah were Iraqi: Kurd and Arab, respectively. Two other regular students were unable to attend class that day, nor could a fairly regular medical student. Too bad . . . though the upside is that my pocketbook suffered less damage.

If you're curious about what these students study, I'll tell you. Sulgi studies philosophy, focusing upon Nietzsche. Jeonghyun is interested in the social responsibility of corporations. Hyun-Kyung is struggling with the multiple voices in Morrison's novel Beloved. EunBin is looking at descent versus consent in The Merchant of Venice. So Young is working on the perfect aspect of English verbs. Shokhan is investigating the consolidation of democracy in Iraq. And Farah is defending universal human rights against cultural relativists, so as to ensure women's rights in Iraq.

If you click on the photo to enlarge, you'll see a large can of candy that we smuggled into the Starbucks. This was a special Iraqi candy made with nuts (pistachio and almond, if I recall) bound together by a sticky, chewy gum derived from the sap of the tamarisk tree (Tamarix gallica) and called "min al-sama" or "mann al-sama" -- and it tasted like manna from heaven . . . because it is. Literally. In the etymological sense, anyway. Maybe. Anyway, Farah contributed this delicacy, to our delight.

If you look closely and carefully, you might also see a few scattered doughnuts, courtesy of the EWIS organizer, Soo Kyung, but smuggled into the Starbucks by a volunteer student who shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty. We're fortunate not to have been caught, arrested, beaten, and incarcerated! But we weren't even reported for our contraband sweets, despite boldly devouring it all in plain view of the entire Starbucks staff. Maybe the staff was lenient because I bought so many drinks. Anyway, we stayed there by the window, drinking our coffee or tea and eating our snacks for a couple of hours, from about 10 to around 12, when I had to leave for an EWIS luncheon and business meeting organized by Soo Kyung.

Sorry, no photos of that second get-together, but it was just as much if not more fun, and very informative as we began to plan our still-distant-but-nevertheless-upcoming summer break EWIS courses . . .

New Year's Greeting from Student

ECC Building

Google Images

You see above the Ewha building where I work, namely, the ECC, an abbreviation for "Ewha Campus Complex" (I think). It reminds me of the parting of the Red Sea . . . not that I'm old enough to have experienced that! Anyway, I teach there, and this is where I encounter most of my students, some of whom even remember me with positive feelings, such as one who sent me this message yesterday:

I am . . . [a student] from your Research Writing Class in the year 2010. It's been [a] few years since I . . . [wrote] a painful and yet fruitful paper under your guidance. But the first long paper I have written since entering university became quite unforgettable. As a greeting for the New Year, I wanted to once again thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from you. It was a wonderful experience and a new motivation for leading my academic path in the right direction. I will continue to work hard to build upon what you have given me. I hope everything goes well in 2013 and I wish you a happy new year!

I think I recall this student -- she supplied her name -- but I wanted to be sure, so I wrote:

Thank you for the New Year's greeting. I'm trying to recall your research paper . . . and (given my faulty memory) your face. I'm terrible with names, but I think that I know which student you are. Did you write on North Korean refugees in South Korea? Or something else? Do you have a photo to jog my memory. I almost always remember faces. Just last week, I was getting a coffee in Ewha's ECC Starbucks, and a student greeted me happily. I recalled her face, but not the course . . . till she reminded me.

Anyway, I'm grateful to hear that my teaching was of some use. I'm sure that most of the credit goes to you, and I wish you the best in this new year!

And I meant my words about the credit going to the student. All I can do is try to supply students with the proper academic equipment and help them find their way along the scholarly path best suited to them. The students are the ones who carry the burden and tread the path . . .

Introducing: Tuomo Lahdelma

Professor Tuomo Lahdelma
Pécsi Tudományegyetem

I have done work over the past two years with BK 21 -- which stands for "Brain Korea Twenty-First Century," a governmental program offering grants to universities to assist graduate students in developing scholarly skills -- and a few days ago, BK 21 asked me if I could introduce the Finnish scholar shown above, Professor Tuomo Lahdelma, at a talk he was scheduled to give. I said yes, and that talk took place yesterday. I therefore had to find out a bit about him, which proved to be quite simple since the kind BK 21 folk sent along his CV. Although the image above shows Professor Lahdelma lecturing in Hungary, he holds a professorship in Finland, at the University of Jyväskylä. Here is what I said in presenting the man:

Hello, I am Professor Hodges, and I have been asked to offer a few words by way of introduction.

Finland is well known to Koreans as a country whose native language is one of Europe's few non-Indo-European tongues and whose high school students rank even higher on the PISA test than Korean high school students themselves do!

Today, we are graced by the presence of Professor Tuomo Lahdelma, a professor at the University of Jyväskylä, in Finland. He is also the president of the International Association for Hungarian Studies.

Professor Lahdelma has an MA in Finnish Language and World Literature and three degrees in Hungarian Language and Literature: a Licentiate of Arts, a Doctor of Philosophy, and a Docent of Hungarian Literature.

Professor Lahdelma has been a visiting professor on a DAAD Fellowship in Germany at the University of Hamburg and a visiting Socrates Lecturer at several European universities.

Moreover, Professor Lahdelma has been the recipient of several honors and awards, including a János Lotz Medal, a Pro Cultura Hungarica award, and a Balassi Sword Literary Prize, and he is a Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland and a Commander, First Class, of the Hungarian Order of Merit.

I am honored to invite Professor Lahdelma to the podium, and I know that you will give him your full attention, for he will surely have words of knowledge and wisdom to impart.

Professor Tuomo Lahdelma . . .

Those were my words of introduction, the first time that I've done this since I was an undergraduate student in Baylor University's Honors Program, when I had to introduce a speaker at one of the Honors Program's special seminars.

I think that I handled this more recent one a bit more professionally . . .