Vortrag: Witnessing the Tae-Han Empire: Texts and Photographs by Isabella Bird, Burton Holmes, and Jack London (Prof. Dr. em. Burglind Jungmann)

The last decades of the Joseon dynasty (1392—1910) are remembered as a period of inner turbulences and the competition between foreign powers over their dominance of the Korean peninsula. Yet, during the crucial period from the mid-1880s to the early 1900s, Joseon was considered ready to independently enter the international arena. In the roughly twenty-five years between the first treaties with the USA and European countries and 1905, when Japan took charge of Korea’s foreign affairs, it sparked the interests of Western diplomats, adventurers and travellers. The texts and images of three visitors during this period, Isabella Bird, Burton Holmes, and Jack London, present very different perspectives on Korea. Rather than seeking historical information, this study attempts to highlight their different views within their personal backgrounds and intentions. In addition to their publications, collections of unpublished photographs reveal a wider spectrum of experience and allow for a closer comparison between textual and visual representation.

Burglind Jungmann studierte Ostasiatische Kunstgeschichte an der Seoul National University und der Universität Heidelberg, wo sie 1988 promovierte und sich, nach einem sechsjährigen Forschungsaufenthalt in Japan, 1996 habilitierte. Sie unterrichtete als erste Professorin für koreanische Kunstgeschichte in den USA von 1999 bis 2017 an der University of California Los Angeles. Von 1999 bis 2003 war sie auch Adjunct Curator am Los Angeles Museum of Art. Zu ihren wichtigsten Veröffentlichungen zählen Painters as Envoys – Korean Inspiration in Eighteenth Century Japanese Nanga (Princeton University Press, 2004) und Pathways to Korean Culture – Paintings of the Joseon Dynasty (Reaktion Books, 2014). Als Gastkuratorin des Fowler Museum der UCLA organisierte sie die Ausstellung Life in Ceramics – Five Contemporary Korean Artists (2010-2011) und schrieb den Katalog. Außerdem edierte sie, gemeinsam mit Adele Schlomps und Melanie Trede, Shifting Paradigms in East Asian Visual Culture: A Festschrift for Lothar Ledderose (Reimer Verlag, 2012) und mit JP Park und Juhyung Rhi A Companion of Korean Art (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020).

Der Vortrag findet in Präsenz statt. Ort: Japan-Zentrum der LMU, Seminargebäude am Englischen Garten, Oettingenstr. 67, 80538 München, Raum 151.

Illustration: Burton Holmes, „Main Gate of Gyeongbok Palace.“ 1901. Hand-coloured lantern slide. 3.5×4 inches [8.3 x 10 cm]. Courtesy of the Burton Holmes Collection, Department of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles