제국-식민지 체제의 재편과 ‘조선어-조선문학’의 행로

Abstract

This paper aims to trace the reasoning path of Joseon writers about the ‘Joseon language’ and ‘Joseon literature’ from the 1930s onward when the empire-colony system entered a new phase after Japan initiated the Sino-Japanese War(1937) as a precursor to the Pacific War(1941) following the Manchurian Incident(1931). As is well known, during the late years of Japanese colonialism, the colonial power transitioned to a so-called new system or total mo- bilization system and activated the strong ruling ideology of naisen ittai (unity of Japan and Korea as one body). They employed the common use of the Japanese language as ‘kokugo,’ meaning the national language, as a powerful methodology and, by promulgating the Third Joseon Education Ordinance in 1938, transformed the Joseon language into an elective sub- ject, thus enforcing the common use of Japanese. The emergence of this new system, or the state of political emergency faced in reality, immediately triggered a literary emergency. With the rapid changes in social conditions, the pro-literary movement, which had led the literary scene of Joseon, waned. Writers who were concerned about the rise of fascist politics and fas- cist literature entered a transitional phase and “Continuously tested in many ways to find a new path for Joseon literature”(Yoo Jin-Oh). This paper examines the discourse surrounding the Joseon language and Joseon literature amid the reorganization of the empire-colony sys- tem into a total mobilization system around the mid-1930s, exploring the path of reasoning of literary persons of Joseon who adjusted the meaning of ethnic language and ethnic literature in the context of global and national literature and sought the path again. This paper is a prelimi- nary study that evaluates the violence of monolingualism or linguistic totalitarianism inherent in the imperialistic nation-state, as imprinted in the conflicts, disturbances, struggles, and compromises of colonial writers who experienced the “violence of humiliation”(Naoki Sakai) caused by the colonization of the Joseon language(mother language) and the privileging of the Japanese language(national language), or the deprivation of the Joseon language and the com- pulsion of the Japanese language. It also seeks to detect the inherent fissures and impossibilities within the “logocracy” or the “rule of words”.