From Surface to Meaning

The Use of Color in History, Politics, and Art, a collection of papers from the 2012 Arts & Letters Conference hosted by the University of North Georgia, explores how color can provide clues to the interpretation of history and politics, works of art, and literature. As ubiquitous as colors are to the human sensorium, a long tradition exists of dismissing them as superficial. Yet, an alternative aesthetic tradition explores how colors are valued for qualities-the primitive, the childlike, the sensual-that stand for a liberation from the dominant tradition. Such oppositions hint at the potential of color as a departure point to explore structures of thought in different cultural contexts. The authors of this volume explore the role color can play, whether as abstract notion or considering particular colors, in the interpretation of culture, politics, and the arts. Dr. Sungshin Kim is a historian of East Asia specializing in China and Korea. After receiving her M.A. from Fudan University (Shanghai), she came to the United States where she earned her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on political legitimacy, ritual and power in China and Korea in the early modern and modern periods. Her current project focuses on exile in Chosun Korea as a way to explain the evolution of its political system using literary sources.