Join the Korean Studies Research Network, an International Programs affinity group, for a webinar titled “What was Zainichi Literature? Intersectionality and the Ethics of Illegibility.” This virtual event , presented by Dr. Cindi Textor, assistant professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Utah.

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This talk will present an encounter between the critical discourse on intersectionality and texts by Korean subjects of the Japanese empire and their postwar descendants in Japan. Arguing for intersectionality as a reading method rather than strictly a tool of social analysis, this talk explores the productive potential of incoherence in literature by Koreans in Japan (Zainichi literature), particularly at a moment when anxieties about the “end” of the genre are on the rise.

Dr. Cindi Textor’s work on incoherence, illegibility, and intersectionality in Korean and Japanese language fiction has appeared in positions: Asia Critique, Journal of Korean Studies, and other venues. Her monograph, Intersectional Incoherence: Zainichi Literature and the Ethics of Illegibility, is forthcoming from the University of California Press. She is also the translator of Kim Sŏkpŏm’s The Curious Tale of Mandogi’s Ghost (Columbia University Press, 2010) and Lee Yangji’s Yuhi (in Nabi Taryŏng and Other Stories, Seoul Selection, 2022).

The Korean Studies Research Network aims to bring together scholars whose research focuses on Korea-related topics and to provide mentoring to the younger generation of scholars. It serves as a platform to facilitate collaborative and interdisciplinary research among scholars and graduate students at the University of Iowa and institutions of higher education in the Midwest through seminars, speaker series, and workshops.

This event is made possible through generous support from the Korea Foundation.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Daniel Vorwerk in advance at 319-467-1619 or [email protected].