Speaker: Jaeyoon Song, Professor of History, McMaster University

Title: Names can Kill: Enslavement through Semiotic Stigma in a Neo-Confucian Korea, ca. 1400-1900

Abstract: In this colloquium, we will examine several important documents on premodern Korean slavery. By reading through these documents, we will examine slave-naming practices in Chosŏn Korea (1392–1897), where an estimated 30~40% of the total population lived in bondage. By analyzing two representative documents, a 1570 will distributing sixty-one slaves among five heirs and a 1702 household register listing 116 slaves, we will encounter many enslaved individuals who were customarily assigned contemptuous birth names invoking animals, excrement, poverty, bodily defects, and sexual organs. In contrast to many slave societies which marked slave bodies through tattooing, branding, and collars, Chosŏn society developed a systematic psychological method of dehumanization through derogatory naming practices. Jaeyoon Song argues that the unusual longevity of Chosŏn slavery without a single recorded case of large-scale slave uprising was in part due to an elaborate method of semiotic stigma and onomastic segregation that fostered servility among the enslaved and confined them to the condition often described as “social death.”

About Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium
The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have also been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.
o At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.
o No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.
o Refreshments will be served.