세계문학의 상상적 좌표들 (1) - 식민지 초기 문학론에 내재된 ‘세계문학’이라는 계기와 그 잔여들

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to confirm how the imaginary and constructive sense of ‘world literature’ has been worked in the itinerary of literary historical awareness that continued from the early days of modern literature in Korea. We tried to examine how the restricted perceptions of ‘world literature’ held by Lee, Kwangsoo(李光洙), Ahn, Hwak(安廓), and Choi, Namseon(崔南善), etc., early disputants on Korean modern literature, had different influences on their literary concepts, especially imaginary ‘national’ literature. First of all, in case of Lee, Kwangsoo(李光洙), the aspect of transition from “The Value of Literature”(文學의 價値, 1910) to “What is Literature?”(文學이란 何오, 1916) had somthing to do with his perception of ‘world literature’. Influenced by the concept of ‘Great Literature(大文學)’ that Kaneko Umaji(金子馬治), Japanese literary critic, represented referring to the case of Germany of his time, he was able to move from the literary concept rooted in emotion as universal to the possibility of Choseon Literature. At that time, for him, the concept of ‘Great Literature(大文學)’ was not a science, but a ‘world literature’ canonized. Under such a understanding, he was convinced that he could carry out ‘Choseon Literature’ to the line of ‘Great Literature(大文學)’ with the work that come in the future. Meanwhile, For Ahn, Hwak(安廓), there was also an understanding of “(history of) world literature” behind the change from “the literature of Choseon”(朝鮮의 文學, 1915) to “the history of Choseon literature”(朝鮮文學史, 1921). In “the literature of Choseon”(朝鮮의 文學, 1915), he raising the denotation of world literature above the vertical axis, assuming that the imagination of the origin of “world literature” far exceeds the boundaries of the literary spectrum after modern times of Western. After this reckless attempt, however, he only lined up a long list of Choseon-Chinese literature within the history of Choseon literature. Conversely, in “the history of Choseon literature”(朝鮮文學史, 1921), he expands the denotation of world literature horizontally and imagined the denotation of Choseon literature that exists in one part of the spectrum of world literature. Finally, in Choi, Namseon(崔南善), the world already existed before literature. It was a means of capturing the world that already existed with the world’s knowledge in his magazine. He imagined ‘world’ and ‘knowledge of world’ as a form of encylopedia. He came to ask how to take the position of ‘Choseon Literature’ in encyclopedia as world.