On the evening of Februrary 16, 2012, Professor Jid Lee from Middle Tennessee State University spoke about her book To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea, a personal narrative of her girlhood in a traditional South Korean family against the traumatic events of recent Korean history including the Japanese occupation. Her lecture is part of the Libraries’ Far Away talk series that take place monthly at Bowling Green Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Campbell Lane. The event concluded with book signing.
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To Kill a Tiger- A Memoir of Korea
This month’s speaker in our Far Away Places series is Jid Lee, Associate Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. Born in Taegu, South Korea she moved to Seoul with her family when she was thirteen. She attended high school in Seoul before enrolling at Korea University from where she received her BA in English in 1979. She dreamed of studying in the United States. Her dreams came true when she was accepted in the MA program at SUNY Albany. It was here, she says, she taught herself proper English, since she did not learn the language until she was 12 years old. After earning an MA she continued graduate work in English at the University of Kansas earning her PhD in 1994.
Her book and memoir To Kill a Tiger was published in 2010 by Overlook Press in New York to considerable acclaim. It juxtaposes her moving personal narrative of girlhood in a traditional South Korean family against the traumatic events of recent Korean history including the impact of the Japanese occupation, World War II and the Korean War on her own family.
She’s presently at work on a second volume of memoirs about her life in the United States.
Professor Lee will be speaking this Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Bookstore (1680 Campbell Lane) and will be signing copies of her book following her presentation. For more information call 745-6121.