Jeonghwan (Javier Ludovico) Kim

Education

M.A. in Spanish Literature at Korea University in Aug. 2020.

“El resplandor profético de la melancolía barroca en Cien años de soledad”

B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature with double major in Economics at Korea University in Feb. 2018.

About Jeonghwan (Javier Ludovico)

Jeonghwan (Javier) is a doctoral candidate specializing in Latin American Literature. His previous areas of interest included Latin American Fantastic Literature of Borges and Cortázar. Now, his current areas of interest go around melancholy figured in Latin American Literature, especially from 17th to 19th century Latin American Literature in relation with the Baroque features. With his one-year exchange student experience in Guadalajara, Mexico, and a research-based travel to Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, he also shows a great interest on the cultural and social characteristics of Latin America and endeavors to investigate positive aspects of them.

As one of this intent, his Master’s degree thesis, El resplandor profético de la melancolía barroca en Cien años de soledad (Aug. 2020), contemplates the meaning of the Baroque melancholy in accordance with its root from the Ancient and the Renaissance in Cien años de soledad, revitalizing the virtue of melancholy, to touch the embedded hope in the work of García Márquez.

He has various experiences of fellowships and awards. Most notably, throughout 2019, He has been awarded 2019 Graduate Scholarship Grant by the Korean Government’s Korea Student Aid Foundation for his individual research project, “Aureliano Babilonia, santificado en Cien años de soledad“. In this research, he tries to analyse the last character of Cien años de soledad in terms of the Baroque melancholy and give a positive perspective on the future of Latin America. Furthermore, on Feb. 25, 2020, he was awarded 2019 KU Graduate Student Achievement Award by the Graduate School of Korea University for his academic activties in 2019.

In UNC at Chapel Hill, he tries to realize in-depth studies on Latin American Literature focusing on its figuration of currently (mainly after 20th century) ignored value of melancholy in a diachronic way in order to understand it as a continuous movement, and to refresh the understanding of Latin American literary works.

Current Areas of Interest

Baroque, Melancholy, Gnosis, Memory, Syncretism, Border Culture, Transcendence, 17th, 19th, 20th Latin American Literature (Especially, Mexico)