Professor Jeon Young-ae, Dedicated to Goethe Research, Receives Imryeok Award

Over 770 Poems by Goethe and About 60 Works of Modern German Literature Translated
Continues Translation and Research Even After Retirement from Seoul National University

Professor Jeon Young-ae, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University who dedicated her life to the study of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749?1832), will receive the Imryeok Award. This honor is given to individuals who have contributed to the promotion of cultural exchange between Korea and Germany. It was established in 1999 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Imryeok (1899?1950), who went into exile in Germany and published the novel "The Amnok River Flows".

The Korea-Germany Association announced on the 25th that the award ceremony will be held on the 27th at the German Cultural Center in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where Professor Jeon will be presented with the plaque. She is a German literature scholar who translated over 770 poems by Goethe. She also introduced about sixty works of modern and contemporary German literature into Korean, including Goethe's "Faust," Hermann Hesse's "Demian," and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" and "A Country Doctor."

Kim Young-jin, president of the Korea-Germany Association, said, "She is a scholar who devoted her life to academia with relentless passion and a mentor to intellectuals living in the same era," adding, "We hope that cultural exchange between Korea and Germany will become more active centered on Goethe's literature, which Professor Jeon is deeply engaged in."

Professor Jeon graduated from the Department of German Language and Literature at Seoul National University and earned her doctorate from the same graduate school. Since 1996, she has served as a professor in the Department of German Language and Literature at Seoul National University and concurrently worked as a senior researcher at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany for five years starting in 2018. Her published research works include "Dark Times and the Language of Suffering: The Poetry of Paul Celan" and "Modern German Literature: Reflections on Division and Reunification."

Recognized for her outstanding achievements, she received the "Goethe Gold Medal" from the Goethe Society in 2011, becoming the first Asian woman to do so. This honor is regarded as equivalent to a Nobel Prize among Goethe scholars. In 2018, her academic book "A Study on Goethe's West-Eastern Divan" was published as the seventy-seventh volume of the Weimar Goethe Society series.

Even after retiring from Seoul National University in 2016, Professor Jeon continues her translation and research work. She published "Faust" in 2019 and the "West-Eastern Divan" last year. Recently, she has even begun working on Goethe's letters. She operates the Yeobaek Seowon in Georeun-ri, Gangcheon-myeon, Yeoju City, where she is also dedicated to nurturing future scholars. "Yeobaek" is the pen name of her father, Jeon Woo-soon, who was deeply knowledgeable in classical Chinese studies. She plans to expand it into a "Goethe Village," creating a space to contemplate and reflect on the life Goethe pursued.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.