Ju-Kwan Cho (; ; born 1953) is a South Korean academic and translator of Slavic literature. He is well recognized for his major contributions to the field of Russian Studies in South Korean academia.In-Bae Seung, "Professor Cho Ju Kwan receives Pushkin Medal for proliferation of Russian literature [조주관 교수 러 문학보급 '푸슈킨 메달' 받아]," The Chosun Daily [조선일보], February 22, 2000, https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2000/02/22/2000022270441.html. He served as the president of the Korean Association of Russists () from 1998 to 2000 and published many Korean-language translations of Russian literature, for which he was awarded a Medal of Pushkin by the Russian Government in 2000. In 2017, Cho also received an Order of Honor from the President of Georgia for his translation of Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's SkinYumi Hwang, "Yonsei Professor Cho Ju Kwan receives Georgian Presidential award for translation of 'Knight in the Panther's Skin' [조주관 연대 교수 '호피를 두른 용사' 번역해 조지아 대통령상 수상]," Newspim [뉴스핌], January 20, 2017, https://www.newspim.com/news/view/20170120000183. into the Korean language. Furthermore, he was awarded a Presidential Citation for his translations of Korean literary works into Russian by the South Korean government in 2018. He is a professor emeritus of Russian Language and Literature at Yonsei University.
Life and career Ju-Kwan Cho was born in Okcheon county, North Chungcheong province, South Korea in 1953. Cho and his family moved to Daejeon shortly after his birth. Inspired after reading The Brothers Karamazov during his mandatory military service, he went on to study Russian language and literature at Korea University, and completed his bachelor's degree in 1981 as part of the department's first cohort. He completed his master's degree in the same department in 1983. He then received his doctorate in Slavic Language and Literature at Ohio State University in 1991 as a Korean government fellow.Sung Won Hwang, "Interview: Literature is an art that transcends the era ["문학은 시대를 앞서가는 예술이다"]," University News Network [한국대학신문], February 19, 2017, https://news.unn.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=169691."Members: Cho, Ju Kwan [조주관]," The National Academy of Sciences [대한민국학술원], accessed June 29, 2024,
https://www.nas.go.kr/page/b993d053-cb85-41f0-b463-55448a4d3893?mber_key=10000431&view=Y&view_url=/member/view/list&redirect_url=/page/3a27a6a3-d008-46cf-8ce2-c1789be74dd8&lang_menu_key=ko&lang=ko. Later, he briefly taught at Seoul National University as a lecturer.
In 1993, Cho became a professor of Russian language and literature at Yonsei University. He also served as a committee member at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow in 1996."People: Russian Gorky Institute Cho Ju Kwan, [사람들: 러 고리키문학硏 학술위원]" The Chosun Daily [조선일보], June 27, 1996, accessed June 29, 2024 via Naver News Library https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1996062700239141022&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1996-06-27&officeId=00023&pageNo=41&printNo=23410&publishType=00010. From 1997 to 2000, he served on the committee of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (МАПРЯЛ) and as the 3rd president of the Korean Association of Russists (KAR) from 1998 to 2000."Leadership History [연혁]," Korean Association of Rusists [한국러시아문학회], accessed June 29, 2024, http://www.russian.or.kr/src/main/page.php?code=1_3. As president of KAR, he endeavored to facilitate academic outreach with local research institutes in Russia, including the Gorky Institute, marking the first effort at educational outreach between the two nations, enabled by the opening of diplomatic relations between South Korea and the Soviet Union in 1991.
Throughout his career, Cho has published several textbooks on Russian literature in Korean, striving to provide an accessible overview of Russian literary history to students and the general public through novel methods. His textbook, Hypertext of Russian Literature, presents each literary work in the form of hypertext, allowing readers to navigate back and forth between different works based on their conceptual and historical connections. His 2006 book The Poetics of Old Russian Literature () was recognized by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as an outstanding academic text () in 2009."Department History [학과 연혁]," Yonsei University Department of Russian Language and Literature [연세대학교 노어노문학과], accessed June 29, 2024, https://rus.yonsei.ac.kr/russia/intro/history.do.
Noting the scarcity of critical discussion and research on pre-19th century Russian Literature in Korean academia, Cho worked to publish more than 30 first translations of 11-18th century Russian and Slavic works of literature into Korean, an endeavor which took him over 10 years to complete. Among these translations were Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's Skin, for which he was awarded an Order of Honor from the Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili in 2017, becoming the first Korean to receive the honor. Margvelashvili remarked that Cho's work was instrumental in laying a "steady foundation for academic outreach between South Korea and Georgia."Bo-Young Kim, "Yonsei Professor Cho Ju Kwan receives award in Translation and Publishing from President of Georgia [조주관 연세대 교수, 번역·출판 분야 조지아 대통령상 수상]," edaily [이데일리], January 1, 2017, https://www.edaily.co.kr/news/read?newsId=03499766615799688&mediaCodeNo=257. Following this accomplishment, Cho became a 2017 inductee of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea (NAS)"Cho Ju-Kwan, 52th generation graduate of Daejeon High, becomes member of National Academy of Sciences [조주관(52회, 연세대학교 교수) 동문, 대한민국학술원 신임 회원으로 선출]," Daejeon High School Alumni Network [대전고등학교총동창회], July 28, 2017, https://www.daego.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=main_06_dongjung&wr_id=1950&sfl=mb_id%2C1&stx=daego1&sst=wr_datetime&sod=desc&sop=and&page=4&device=pc. and received a Presidential Citation by the South Korean government in 2018. In 2019, as part of a mutual exchange between the Literature Translation Institute of Korea and Belarusian publisher Mastatskaya Litaratura, In 2019, Cho contributed to the publication of 그래도 봄은 온다 (Spring will Come), a Korean-language collection of Belarusian poetry featuring the work of Yanka Kupala, Maksim Bahdanovič, and Yakub Kolas.
In his later career and retirement in 2019, Cho has turned his attention to the translation of Korean literary works into Russian, such as Yun Dong-ju's Sky, Wind, Star and Poem, Jeong Ho-seung'''s To the Daffodil, and Yi Seongbok's Ah, Those Things Without Mouths, endeavoring to foster a wider appreciation of Korean literature in the international community.
Notable work
Derzhavin, Neoclassicism, and the Russian Baroque Cho's most notable paper deals with the work of Gavrila Derzhavin, which has historically been identified by most scholars as structurally neoclassicist but seldom associated with the Baroque. Cho argues, alongside several other scholars, that Russian literature is an interesting context for discussing these two concepts, which are typically considered opposites in Western literature. The "neoclassical" is typically seen as more reserved, aspiring to return to a 'sensible' tradition through the precise and conservative recreation of classical imagery, whereas its opposite the "baroque" is better described as a dramatic celebration of the emotions of the present through an indulgent and exaggerated use of symbols and imagery.
Cho suggests that, because the Russian artist has no genuine historical connection to the 'classical' western tradition, their imitation of neoclassicist aesthetics requires the retroactive imagination of a faux-western tradition to which they can imitate the aspiration to return, an act that is in itself Baroque.
Cho argues that Derzhavin, a Russian writer whose work imitates the aesthetics and structures of Western classics in his work, subverts the meaning of their literary topoi by reimagining them in his own image rather than relying on their historical meanings. These topoi, "carpe diem," "memento mori," "ubi sunt," "brevitas vitae." which in isolation are thematically aligned with the classical and conservative fear of death and appreciation of life, are transformed into a fascination with the romance of living and dying through Derzhavin's dramatic reinterpretation of the phrases as conversational, forming a narrative of an individual's changing relationship with the thought of dying. This reinterpretation of classical forms into dramatic and indulgent emotional extremes, Cho describes this use of classical imagery as not strictly neoclassicist as it contains very baroque sensibilities, forming a "baroque neoclassicism."Gombrich, E. H. "Review: [Untitled]" The Art Bulletin 35, no. 1 (1953): 79–84, https://doi.org/10.2307/3047467.
Russian literature and visual art in dialogue A significant portion of Cho's academic bibliography deals with the influence of the visual arts on the works of Russian writers, and the influence of Russian literature on visual artists. In 2008, he published "Dostoevsky's Iconography Code especially in <Sistine Madonna> and <Crime and Punishment>" (도스또옙스끼의 도상코드: <시스티나의 마돈나>와 <죄와 벌>을 중심으로), an intertextual study between Raphael's Sistine Madonna and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, which was later developed into the full-length book Drawings beloved by Dostoyevsky. The book traces the writer's affection for the visual arts and its influence on his work, accompanied by the illustrations contained in Dostoyevsky's own notes. It features re-translations of seven novels (The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Demons, Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, The Adolescent and Polzunkov) alongside a historiography of Dostoyevsky's appreciation for paintings and galleries, and an analytic survey on his philosophy of art.Seung-Woo Choi, "Drawings beloved by Dostoyevsky [도스토옙스키가 사랑한 그림들]" The Kyosu Shinmun [교수신문], November 4, 2022, https://www.kyosu.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=96349. The book was published in 2022 to critical acclaim;Aram Kwak, "Dostoyevsky wrote 'The Brothers Karamazov' while observing the work of Painter Raphael [도스토옙스키는 라파엘로 그림 앞에서 '카라마조프가의 형제들'을 썼다]," The Chosun Daily [조선일보], October 29, 2022, https://www.chosun.com/culture-life/book/2022/10/29/ABKPHPGTBRESHAUVYD56AMPQ5M/.So-Young Moon, "The Baby Cherub is a 'scene stealer' in Dostoyevsky's favorite Mother Mary ['신 스틸러' 아기 천사와 도스토옙스키의 성모]," The JoongAng [중앙일보], December 24, 2022, https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25128334. Journalist Hyun-Jung Park of Hankyoreh news notes that she found the work "accessible and fascinating, even to new readers unfamiliar with Dostoyevsky or the artworks discussed."Hyun-Jung Park, "The world of Dostoyevsky is akin to an Art Exhibit [도스토옙스키의 세계는 하나의 미술관이다]," The Hankyoreh [한겨래], October 28, 2022, https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/book/1064637.html. In 2012, he published "The Artistic Imagination in Dialogue between Dostoyevsky and Munch" ("도스토옙스키와 뭉크의 대화적 상상력"), the first full-length comparative study of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's well-documented idolization of Dostoyevsky and his work, from which he drew heavy influence and his paintings, which are heavily inspired by Dostoyevsky's writing. Cho argues that many of Munch's paintings are in "artistic dialogue" with Dostoyevsky's novels.
Accolades
2000 Pushkin Medal 2000 Outstanding Accomplishment Professor Award (), Yonsei University 2009 Outstanding Research Professor Award (), Yonsei University 2012 Minister's Award (), Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology 2015 Korean Association of Rusists Research Award (), Korean Association of Rusists 2017 Order of Honor, President of Georgia 2018 Presidential Citation, President of South Korea
Publications
Books
Hypertext of Russian Literature (러시아 문학의 하이퍼텍스트, 2005) ISBN 9788971153710