‘세계문학론’의 한국적 전유와 그 난제들

Abstract

This study aims to examine the questions of world literature discussion debated actively in the recent English literary world and comparative literary world to Korean literature and to delve into the acceptance and responses of the Korean literary world. Korean literature began through world literary influences, although the influences were via Japan. In this regard, the influences of world literature on Korean literature cannot be said to be a novel issue. The recent world literary discussion emerging at the historical background in which modern countries’ boundaries become obscure is different from the world literary discussion having a modern meaning that we are familiar with in terms of critical mind. The origin of world literary discussion was explained in two categories based on such differences in historical background. Through such a categorization, it was investigated that the world literature mentioned by Goethe and Marx in the 19th century and the world literature, a subject for current debate, are in the enormously different context. The aspect that world literary discussion is accepted in Korea was divided into criticism and the Korean national literature world, and the former was classified into Gothe-Mark style planning and a position presenting global world literature as an alternative. The feature of the former case is that world literature is exclusively possessed in the mode of planning, namely a fashion of movements, and the latter case’s feature is showing an attitude to reorganize the world into non-Europe-centered world. Unlike such a critical response aspect, Korean national literature researchers do not show interest in world literary discussion. This study identified the reason as a problem occurring, because Korean national literature has defined itself as the name of Korean national literature by which the ideological dominance of own country’s literature or national literature is clearly felt, instead of the neutral name of Korean literature. To Korean national literature researchers, literature encompasses the thoughts, emotions, and ideologies of one country and one people, rather than just a research subject. Therefore, the moment when Korean national literature enters world literature under the name of Korean literature by giving up the name of Korean national literature, the literary standard considered as important thus far becomes risky. This study tried to emphasize that the very point is the one where the gap between world literature and Korean national literature is sharply revealed.