The Daesan Foundation Seoul, Korea, is planning to hold the
Second International Forum for Literature in May, 2005. The
First Forum, with the theme of "Writing Across Boundaries"
was held in September 26¢¦28, 2000, with the participation
of many distinguished writers from abroad and home, we would
like to believe, with a huge success. The theme of the Second
Forum will be "Writing for Peace," which we consider to be
of a particular pertinence at this period of world history.
One would think that a world, rapidly becoming one, should
hold high hopes for peace and prosperity for humanity as a
whole, but one cannot deny that prospects of increased conflict
and misery loom equally large, What is the role literature
can play in the globalizing world if it is to move towards
an order of peace and prosperity?
This is the central question we would like to consider. Immense
task ahead for peace and prosperity would lie above all in
the practical realms of international politics, economy and
other negotiable hard issues. However, an enduring ground
for peace will be laid when there develop mutual recognition
and understanding among the peoples of different societies
and cultures, and among persons of different backgrounds and
beliefs -- not only through images and news available in the
media but at the level of serious and truthful communication
in authentic human plurality and universality. Literature
has a privileged role to play in preparing this ground. Only
with the development in the deeper and truthful communication
of humanity, the practical task of peace could be justly and
properly oriented.
The Forum will discuss various issues related to peace and
the role of the literary form of human communication in world
peace : ideals of peace in different traditions, cleavages
and conflicts in the global community of humankind, the relationship
between the West and the rest, the multiple realities of the
world, the impact of Western modernity on the world, the changing
conditions of the mode of existence of literature and their
significance in the literary form of human communication across
boundaries of cultures and persons.
Issues related to the question of peace are of profound concern
to all the peoples of the world, but the study of the question
of peace has a particular urgency to the people and writers
of Korea who feel they live under the threat of a potential
conflict of global scale due to the tensely divided condition
of their country.
We cordially invite your contribution to this international
forum on the question of writing for peace in the globalizing
world.
