Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan

"Stiller's work provides a wealth of valuable insights into the history of social status, travel, and cultural production in mid-tolate Chosŏn Dynasty Korea. Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan is also a beautiful example of book production—elegantly laid-out, and richly illustrated with photographs and reproductions of paintings and calligraphy."—Asian Studies Review

"For the way it looks at calligraphy and travel as a resource for social mobility, this book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of late Chosŏn society."—Donald Baker, Centre for Korean Research, University of British Columbia

"Integrates histories of visual culture, elites, travel, and spatiality to create an unparalleled study of one of East Asia's great calligraphic mountain sites. Together with the interactive Autographic Atlas of Korea website this is an important example of how the digital humanities is transforming the study of cultural history."—Peter Bol, Harvard University

"A magisterial work, comprehensive in scope and meticulous in scholarship, standing as a definitive study of the sociocultural history of Mount Kŭmgang. Stiller's compelling interpretation of the historical significance of its carved autographic inscriptions provides powerful insights into how the mountain served as space for social mobility and battleground for different status groups to gain social prestige and cultural pride."—Chin-Sung Chang, Seoul National University

"Drawing on a wide range of textual and visual sources, Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan presents fascinating insights into mid- to late Chosŏn society. Through its exploration of travelers to Kŭmgangsan, the volume offers new ways of understanding space as a geopolitical text framed by the political, religious and cultural milieu of its time."—Charlotte Horlyck, author of Korean Art from the 19th Century to the Present

"A lucid product of exacting literary and field research which reveals how personal and family identity and status, carved in stone at a spectacular but remote site, epitomized the evolution of social structure and aspiration across three centuries of the late Chosŏn."—Sunglim Kim, author of Flowering Plums and Curio Cabinets: The Culture of Objects in Late Chosŏn Korean Art

"This book contains invaluable insights into the function of travel among elites in Chosŏn Korea. Particularly, Stiller demonstrates how inscriptions and autographs in the Kŭmgang Mountains were used to connect with other travelers and to also create a legacy that would honor their lineages in future generations. This work represents a substantial contribution to studies of life, art, and ideology in late Chosŏn."—Michael J. Pettid, coeditor of Premodern Korean Literary Prose: An Anthology