잡지 『동명』의 문화사적 정체성과 문예의 역할

Abstract

“Dongmyeong” contained literary works without omission of any single issue until it was discontinued. In particular, in the wake of the Incident of the serious slip of the pen in ‘New Life’, the proportion of literary works was greatly increased, and the literary works were fully developed. As a result of a full investigation of the literary works of “Dongmyeong”, about 240 works were identified, and the six works were newly discovered. The internal writers were mainly in charge of literary works, and most of the literary works were occupied by translations. This can be read as an attempt to evade censorship by pretending to be a translation of the world literature against the government‐general’s oppression of the press. For works based on translations, the subject matter is relatively clear because the majority of translators did not translate the works at random, but a small number of internal writers translated the world literature. These translation works were mainly literary figures of nationalism and socialism, and the necessity of self‐help was emphasized through the tragic ending of a character who did not practice self‐help. In conclusion, the theme consciousness that penetrated the entire literary works was self‐help, and it can be summarized as a literary translation of self‐help theory, which was carried out through the media’s discursive orientation. The cultural historical significance of “Dongmyeong” is first, that it functioned as a venue for the presentation of practical literary works during the hiatus of literary magazines. As “Changjo” and “Pyeheo (Ruins)” were discontinued in 1921, it was practically a blank period in literary journals until the magazine, “Joseon Mundan” was first published in 1924. “Dongmyeong” was advocated as a weekly magazine, but the proportion of actual literary works was quite high, and it contributed to the history of literature by securing a space for literary works to be published. “Dongmyeong” responded to the period from the end of the literary coterie magazine era until the publication of literary magazines in earnest. Second, despite being a magazine based on nationalism, it sought solidarity with socialism. Generally, some people view “New Life” as a medium representing socialism and “Dongmyeong” as a medium representing nationalism. However, in practice “Dongmyeong” avoided the confrontational structure of nationalism versus socialism and experimented with the possibility of cohabitation for the integration of these two ideas. As confirmed in the analysis of the contents of literary works, it was an effort to embrace socialism while basing it on nationalism.