일제 말기 ‘역사’ 담론의 아포리아와 그 초극의 문제-임화와 김기림의 역사 이해를 중심으로

Abstract

In Late Japanese Colonial Period, the Korean intellectual’s wish for the construction of a new nation and the establishment of socialist republic got more uncertain. In that period, the Korean intellectuals tried to get the alternative to the Japanese colonialist’s plan “East Asian Cooperativism” while distancing themselves from the colonialist’s plan. They did not consider that the Japanese’s motto of “East Asian Cooperativism” would be the future model as it was just a false motto for Japanese to justify their wars. Though Korean intellectuals once reviewed the possible adoption of the discourse of “East Asian Cooperativism” seriously, they kept the critical attitude toward the Orientalism led by Japanese. Those who led the discussion on the history in the colonial Joseon included the philosophers of history such as Shin Nam-chul, Park Chi-woo and Seo In-sik. Their thinking of the history contained two aporias. One is that they had not given concrete consideration to the colonial Joseon as they gave so much emphasis on the macroscopic thinking on world history. Another is that as they tried to devise an alternative to the Japanese imperialism’s plan of history, they suggested the proposal which was too utopian-teleological oriented that it was almost similar to that made by Japanese. The theory of history made by Lim Hwa and Kim Ki-rim contained the factors which could overcome the aporias of philosophy of history. They tried to have the emphirical study on the modern literature of Joseon rather than taking a look at the society of colonial Joseon from the macroscopic viewpoint. So, instead of setting up the final destination of history, they could catch the power for the social changes in Joseon. Of course, even though they had not fully got out of the utopian-teleological oriented thinking of history, they could reach the differentiated understanding of the history by developing the emphirical thinking on modern literature of Joseon. The core factors which enabled them to think the social changes without suggesting the idealistic future images were the “heteroglossia” which Lim Hwa deemed as the source of Joseon’s modern literature and the “self-negation” which Kim Ki-Rim reconstructed as the tradition of Joseon’s modernism literature. They thought that the ideal future images which were suggested at that time were not compatible with the experience of Joseon’s past and present and therefore tried to make efforts in catching the force of the change embedded in the society of Joseon. At this time, it was very critical to recover the force of change as it was the work for the change in the society of Joseon in its fight against the colonialist’s history plan.