부／재의 언어로(가) 쓰다－『‘재일조선인 문학사’를 위하여: 소리 없는 목소리의 폴리포니』－

Abstract

This is a review article on A Literary History of Zainichi Koreans: Revealing the Polyphony of Silent Voices written by Song, Hyewon. The book was translated by Song Heyeon herself and published by Somyeong Publishing Company in 2019. Her narrative style in A Literary History of Zainichi Koreans deviates from the conventional ways; rather, it displays the power of creative deconstruction in the following three respects. First, it begins the literary history of Zainichi with the writings of women who had no chances and no rights to learn how to express themselves. Secondly, it ranges over the Zainichi literary works written in Japanese as well as in Korean. Thirdly, the Zainichi literary works have been traditionally classified into the categories literature written in the colonized period or in the nation-state period (that is, Korean literature and Japanese literature.), and consumed under these categories. In A Literary History of Zainichi Koreans, this conventional categorization is reexamined and reevaluated afresh, which, finally, makes a creative suggestion for the new way of writing the literary history. This book carries out the creative deconstruction of the traditional studies on literature and its history. In the light of its ingenious perspectives, this paper delves into the arguments developed in the book, keeping in mind the three questions below: First, how can the Zainichi literary works be connected with those of other minority groups in writing literary history? Secondly, the new narrative style in the book embraces writings of women (i.e. their testimonies, diaries, oral descriptions and the like) and its inspiring arguments will, it is believed, give a fresh impact to the world literature. In this respect, we have a question as follows: What stimulus do the Zainichi women’s writings provide to Korean literary world and／or World literature and to what extent? Thirdly, the main argument in A Literary History of Zainichi Koreans brings forth the experiences of the beings who suffered in the colonial and／or the hot cold war period. Can the foregrounding of these sufferers and their experiences make afresh the directional nature of decolonization and suggest a new route in its orientation? Based on these three issues in mind, this paper looks into the arguments in A Literary History of Zainichi Koreans, and analyzes the revolutionary conditions inspired in literary works by addressing the inherent characteristics of Zainichi literature and their comtemporary contribution to the literary world.