한국계 미국 비평가들이 본 한국전의 재고

Abstract

This study reassesses certain Korean American critics’ views on the Korean War. These critics maintain that Susan Choi’s debut novel, The Foreign Student, reflects Bruce Cumings’ historical revisionism and suggests that the Korean War was at a certain point kidnapped by the Cold War. In other words, the Korean War “might have begun as a civil conflict” but “superseded by the bipolar Cold War rivalry,” to quote Jodi Kim’s words. This study begins by introducing three perspectives on the war: the international war theory, the revisionist war theory, and the complex war theory. Based on this discussion, this study examines how these critics’ interpretations align with and diverge from Cumings’ historical revisionism. It also explores in what ways their anti-Cold War frame is, on the one hand, compelling but, on the other hand, fails to adequately acknowledge the irreducible political dynamism within Korea during the volatile and turbulent post-liberation era. This study concludes with a reflection on the historical consciousness that is lacking in Choi’s historical novel.