유종호 문학과 로컬리티-언어와 양식의 문제를 중심으로

Abstract

This article aims to examine the locality of Korean literature that appears throughout Yoo Jongho’s literature. As is well known, locality is a concept that is noteworthy in that it is a medium that can dismantle the existing solid center and periphery hierarchy, and further recognize the unique characteristics of the local area. This concept of locality also has important implications for the study of Korean literature, as it can overcome the bias of research that sets modern Western literature as an absolute criterion and considers Korean literature located around it as a result of imitation and transplantation of these criterion. Yoo Jongho conducts an in-depth exploration of literary language through early criticism from the 1950s to the 60s. Through his discovery of the local native language, he shows a critical perception of Western ideological words that flooded post-war literature of the time, and further reveals his thoughts on literary languages beyond native language and ideological language. Based on this perception, Yoo Jongho shows a critical self-consciousness that historically genealogizes the periphery genre through genre-based problem setting from the 1970s to the 80s. Since the 2000s, Yoo Jongho has embodied the unique locality of Korean literature in poetry based on the work performed in the previous period. His poems transform the Western modern literary canon to suit the local characteristics of Korea, or subvert the central and periphery hierarchies through locality. Yoo Jongho’s literary search for Korean literature and locality, which has lasted for more than 60 years, can be regarded as an important achievement in that it shows a new perspective on Korean literature in the genealogy of the periphery genres distinct from Western modern literature.