▲ Professor Song Sang Ki giving the lecture. Photographed by Lee Arim.
On May 25, Korea University (KU) Global Leadership Development Center held a lecture “A Reflection on Latin America Culture—Understanding the Other Face of Modernity,” as an intensive course for 2017 KU-Latin America Global Leadership Program. The lecture was given by Professor Song Sang Ki (Department of Spanish Language and Literature), who is also taking the position as the Vice President of Office of International Affairs.
 
Throughout the lecture, Song explored the Latin American culture in the period of constant modernization, specifically focusing on the assimilation of natives into modernity. He began the lecture by explaining the concept of modernity and its reflection on various literary works. He then explained the process of modernization in Latin America, and pointed out that pre-modernity and modernity coexist within the Latin American society. “There still exists some natives who do not even know Spanish, who call the hispanicized natives as ‘Ladinos.’ They believe that these Ladinos lack the spirit of community, and this is indicative of the deep-rooted dichotomy between the two groups,” he said.
 

Though he was not able to complete his lecture due to time constraint, he introduced the concept of “duality” through the book La Filosofía Nahuatl(1956). The writer, Miguel Portilla, describes the irony between mythology and history, as the main character finds the discrepancy between the enviable Westerners he read in myths and those who dominated his continent. Closing his lecture, he remarked, “I believe this ‘duality’ is the most significant feature of Latin American culture, especially for the natives facing modernity. 

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