동양주의 담론에 대응하는 이효석의 ‘서구’ 표상과 댄디로서의 조선문학

Abstract

This article tries to examine Lee HyoSeok’s Inclination to Western aesthetics not as a fragmented desire or imperialistic gaze, but as a response to the Greater East Asia discussion in late Japanese Imperial period. I intend to explain that Lee’s notion of ‘Western’ is different from the ones occuring in the Greater East Asia discussion or Modernism. In all his literary work, Lee HyoSeok stressed the symbolic significance of the notion of ‘Western’, a fact which is especially important in light of its relation to the theory of National Literature. By means of Western aesthetics, his critique proposes hellenistic “Literature of Body” and “Absolute stage of singular freedom and stability” as a literary archetype. The subject theory Lee endorses is inspired by the principle “art for art’s sake”, and it deconstructs the category created by the theory of National Literature. In turn, this makes room for a type of literature focusing on the aesthetics of the life of an individual. Furthermore, he deconstructs the notions of ‘Joseon’ and ‘locality’ as something incomprehensible. Then, in the process of creating ‘Joseoness’, he confronts the Imperial act of naming what counts as ‘Joseoness’. In this context, Lee views Joseon/Locality not as a product of Imperial perspective or an expression of its inferiority, both of which implicitly submit that these are something to be objectified. Joseon (and korean literature) should be an aesthetical subject that creates its own self. As such, Joseon should be Dandy to create its own tradition and beauty.