Séminaire – Histoire des sciences, histoire du texte
mars 27, 2025 @ 9h30
Diagrams outside of mathematics and astronomy
Org. A. Keller
- Dagmar Wujastyk (University of Alberta)
Tba
- Hyeok Hweon “H. H.” Kang (Washington University in St. Louis)
The Literature of Technology: How to Read Machine Drawings and Texts from Chosŏn Korea
Abstract: This presentation examines the visual and verbal grammar of technological literature in Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910), focusing on the nineteenth century. By technological literature, I mean works that address the knowledge of manufacture, use, and design of objects, including but not limited to recipes, encyclopedic entries, ritual codices, illustrated explanations, and military manuals. Much of this literature has been selectively studied, to extract information about history, but rarely as a corpus of its own. Without understanding how to “read” it, scholars also jump to conclusions about their lack of usage or utility. I elucidate how they should be read by focusing on two nineteenth century texts, Ch’oe Han’gi’s Illustrated Explanations of Ingenious Machines 心器圖說 and Essentials of the Military Workshop 戎垣必備. My analysis will include the dissection of epistemic media employed in each work and their functions, including the use of drawing labels, recipes, diagrams, and illustration techniques. I will also examine verbal descriptions and their linguistic register and strategies, for example, how vernacular Korean was deployed in relation to literary Sinitic. Finally, I consider how the verbal media relate to the images and diagrams on the same page, a key element that animates technological literatures..
- Tba
Lieu: Salle Mondrian 646A – bâtiment Condorcet