Prof. Vladimir M. Tichonov, one of the world leading specialist in Korean Studies, will deliver a lecture on Tolstoy’s role
in the East/West encounters in early 20th century.
Přednáška se uskuteční v pondělí 9. června od 17:00 na hlavní budově FF UK (nám. Jana Palacha 2), místnost č. 200.
Abstract:
Tolstoy was the most translated Western writer in colonial Korea. He was revered by the intellectuals across the whole
ideological spectrum – both by extreme right-wingers and Communists. Tolstoy’s reception in colonial-time Korea was just
as multi-sided as Tolstoy’s talent itself. Initially seen as a modernist religious figure (rather than a pacifist radical),
he was then regarded as a religious prophet, radical thinker or/and melodramatic writer with great compassion towards
the female victims of the bourgeois order by different socio-political and cultural groups.
In all the cases, however, from the 1920s onward, «compassion» was the keyword in Tolstoy’s understanding
by the Korean public. Tolstoy contributed greatly into making «compassion» a more universal concept free from its initial
Buddhist or Christian doctrinal context, and recognizing it as a modern virtue.