일제말기 한국문학과 식민적 근대 비판 - 서승희, 『식민지 근대의 크리틱—1930~40년대 한국문학비평, 제도, 서사』, 소명출판, 2023

Abstract

Singminji Geundaeui Keuritik: 1930~40nyeondae Hangungmunhakbipyeong, Jedo, Seosa [Critique of Colonial Modernity: Literary Criticism, System, and Narratives in Colonial Korea, 1930~40] offers an institutional analysis grounded in theories of colonial modernity, focusing on Korean literature during the late colonial period. This analysis primarily focuses on Choe Jaeseo, a leading figure in “gungmin munhak” [national literature], during the period. The book examines Choe’s engagements in various literary institutions and extends its analysis to other authors within the domain of national literature, taking into account the publishing mediums and socio-political contexts of their writings. Through such detailed examinations, the book argues that national literature, which appears to serve as a mechanism for the unilateral assimilation of colonized subjects into the colonial metropole, in fact algns with the overaching modern governmentalizing strategy of formaing a national subject. Morevoer, it reveals that this governmentalizing is not merely an imposition of power but is technologically sustained through a state system that prompts the transformation of colonized individuals into national subjects. Singminji Geundaeui Keuritik is recognized for synthesizing and advancing two major scholarly trends in the field of modern Korean literature since the 2000s: critical postcolonial studies of late colonial literature, and research viewing both colonial and post-war literature as manifestations of enduring colonial modernity. The book offers substantial insights into how the entanglement of coloniality and the state system under Japanese rule intensified the mechanisms of colonial subjugation, through sophisticated institutional literary analysis.