1930년대 대만 향토문학과 대만화문(臺灣話文) - 대만문학사 서술을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Vigorous debate about Taiwan nativist (regional) literature and about the unification of the spoken and the written language of Taiwan has been going on since the 1930s, and continues today. There have been explosive scenes of discursive struggle and associated social movements in Taiwan concerned with whether Taiwan nativist and regional literature should be written in the Taiwanese vernacular. The ideological concepts underpinning Taiwanese literature have been complicated by the political implications of Chinese and Taiwanese identity. In the 1970s, Taiwanese authors and literary researchers who had been exposed to various strands of Taiwan nativist (regional) literature formulated their own distinct versions of Taiwanese literary history. Each of them paid particular attention to what they wanted to emphasize, but common to all of them is the idea that the essence of literature lies in communicating with the public. In the 1930s the discussion revolved around what language tools should be used to get closer to the workers and peasants to encourage proletarian literacy. Thus, the consciousness of Taiwanese identity and its division from Chinese identity were mediated by Taiwanese literature, giving rise to new discussions: can its essence eventually change because of the intention to see something particular? Taiwanese literary history seems to have its own existence, distinct from the history of Taiwanese literature as a narrative. However, as pointed out in this paper: “The history of Taiwanese literature exists as the totality of all this diversity, integrating the whole spectrum of the various narrative and written histories of Taiwanese literature.” Indeed, we have every reason to continue to study Taiwanese literature, and to anticipate that it will create further great works.