Welcome to Yoon Sun Yang, Assistant Professor of Korean and Comparative Literature

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Yoon Sun Yang has accepted our offer of the position of Assistant Professor of Korean and Comparative Literature and will be joining us this fall. She will be teaching Introduction to Korean Literature and Gender in East Asian Film.

Yoon Sun Yang earned her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 2009 at the University of Chicago and since then has held the position of Assistant Professor of Korean Studies at Arizona State University. She holds two MA’s in Comparative Literature, one from SUNY Stony Brook and one from Yonsei University, one of the most distinguished universities in Korea. Dr. Yang is at work on a book manuscript tentatively titled The Rise of Modern Korean Fiction: From Domestic Women to Sentimental Men, 1906-1917. The book aims to give a gender-conscious account of the rise of modern Korean fiction, one that also calls into question dominant accounts of the “rise of individualism” in Korean literature. Yang argues that a genre of popular fiction centered on the portrayal of domestic women, the “sin sosol,” which is generally excluded from the category of modern fiction altogether, is actually an essential link in the transition from traditional to modern literature; women characters in the sin sosol “personify the historical processes that paved the way for the appearance of an individual in modern Korean fiction.” This is exciting work that promises to reshape accounts of this critical turning point in Korean literature, and it participates in the sophisticated conversation regarding colonialism and post-colonialism going on throughout literary studies. Dr. Yang brings strong Japanese skills and a good knowledge of Japanese literature to her work. Her teaching experience is broad, featuring thematic courses and survey courses taught in English translation as well as Literary and Cultural Theory, third-year Korean language, and Korean film; she also has a significant interest in translation studies and in the practice of translation.

We are extremely happy at this good news and look forward to welcoming Dr. Yang to Boston this fall. Thanks to the very hardworking search committee and to all who helped in various ways to bring us to this success.