Professional and popular outlooks in ‘Korean Histories’

Professional historiography and popular history are not separate fields. On the contrary, they affect one another. That is the basic idea behind the new, peer-reviewed journal Korean Histories, whose first issue has recently gone online.

The Korean painter Shin Jenam (1952) puts the territorial conflict with Japan about two rocks in the sea between Korea and Japan in a historical perspective -- literally. Against the background of a stele carved with accounts of the deeds of a renowned king – the Territory Winner – from Korean history, we see an image of Tan’gun, the founder of the first Korean state.

Basic premise

‘History as representation of the past is a social activity, in which many more individuals and groups participate than the community of professional historians alone.’ This ‘simple’ idea is the basic premise of the Leiden research group History as Social Process: Unconventional Historiographies of Korea, who will publish the new journal twice a year. These professional historians thank their right to exist to the wide-spread interest in the past and the reflection of it in society as a whole.

Debate

There are also amateur historians, such as novelists, film makers, artists, journalists, politicians and genealogists, who use their work to demonstrate their interest in history. Arguments based on historical facts have become part and parcel of the social and political debate. Some people may try to negate the rationale of the existence of historiography, but the reality is that a society without representations of the past is just as unlikely to exist as a society without some kind of religious imagery.

Korea

The awareness that the our modern-day society cannot be understood without knowing the thoughts existing about the past, is certainly alive in Korea. Korea is a country that sets unusually high store by its history.

Critical eye

The editors of Korean Histories welcome articles that present new perspectives, brought to its readers from either a purely historical or a somewhat anthropological approach, and that review Korea´s past with a fresh yet critical eye. Articles that propose methodological alternatives, or are critical of the approach taken by Korean Histories, are equally welcome.

Audiovisual material

Korean Histories will also publish research notes and reviews of books that are relevant to the approach it takes as a journal. Because it is an online publication, it is even possible to make such sources as audiovisual material accessible in the journal. Much of that material is already in the public domain, but is difficult to access. These sources will be published with short bibliographical introductions, which explain how they can be used for further research.

Links

· The journal Korean Histories
· The research group History as Social Process: Unconventional Historiographies of Korea
(12 January 2010)