Goethe expert retiring
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Prof. Chon Young-ae
By Yoon Ja-young
Chon Young-ae, a professor of German Language and Literature at Seoul National University, is retiring. She was the first Asian female to be awarded the golden Goethe Medal by the Goethe Society in Weimar, Germany, in 2011.
Born in a family with a Confucian background in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province in 1951, she grew up surrounded by books. Her passion for literature, which started with the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, led her to study German Language and Literature at Seoul National University, but she didn’t enter the Ph.D. program until the age of 33 due to marriage and childcare. She has been teaching at her alma mater for 20 years since 1996.
Her class, “Understanding German Classics,” has been cited as one of the best courses at Seoul National University.
Throughout the semester, students read pieces by virtuosos of the German literature, such as Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse. The students make their own books at the end of the semester, based on their discussions and writings. On the last day of the course, they introduce their books to the class.
At the farewell lecture held Wednesday, under the title “My Books, My Ways,” she told stories about the book she’s worked on and her students recalled why the class was special to them.
Chon has translated around 60 German books, including a complete collection of Goethe’s poems in 2009, its first Korean translation. She also published a research book on Paul Celan’s poems in 1986, another first in Korean.
Chon plans to continue researching German literature after retirement, at a small private library she opened in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, a few years ago. It is open to students and researchers. This year she will publish a translation of “Faust,” in which she plans to focus on the poetic features of the masterpiece.