中․日 한국현대문학사의 해방공간 서술양상과 그 의미

Abstract

This paper compares and analyses the narrative aspects of the liberation period in the History of modern Korean literature written in China and Japan, with viewpoints of the History of North and South Korean literature as well as the History of Chinese and Japanese literature. After the division of Korea, two Koreas have had distinct differences in terms of describing the history of literature due to the differences in historical recognition of the liberation period. On the other hand, as China and Japan are able to overlook both Koreas in close distance, the History of modern Korean literature written in China and Japan have different perspectives compared to that of two Koreas, and therefore, deserve a particular attention. Hence, this study focuses on Bing Min Jin’s “The History of Joseon-Korean contemporary literature” (2000) written in China, and Toshikatsu Saegusa’s “Taste of Korean Literature” (1997) written in Japan, and analyses the differences in their viewpoints when describing the Korean liberation period. Bing Min Jin concentrates on the fact that both left and right-wing writers had common interest during the liberation period and attempts to include such fact when narrating the History of Korean Literature. Although Jin failed to demonstrate such perspective in the actual manuscript, his integrated narration has its own significance in terms of seeking the intersecting point between the History of South and North Korean literature. Toshikatsu Saegusa is extending the border of the national literature by discoursing the liberation period in a unique way. Saegusa demonstrates the literary history especially focusing on the controversies such as ideology and human, circumstance and human, or morality of the writer, and thereby approaches the literary topics of the liberation period in universal extent. Thus, Saegusa’s text is, in a sense, exceeding the literary history as the national state narrative. His perspective is not prompted nor attached to either South or North Korean point of view; however, it still succeeds to capture the meaningful topic as well as to examine the possibility of reevaluating the history of Korean literature as the discourse of human and life. As the recent historical events are ameliorating the relationship between two Koreas, the narration of the History of Korean Literature should be transformed into the notion of unification-centered nationalism as well, and such perspective is only possible when the critical viewpoint towards the current history of the South and North Korean literature is settled. In the process of building such critical stance, the limits and possibilities which the narrative aspects of the liberation period in the History of modern Korean literature written in China and Japan possess is influential.