소설과 문학사, 기원의 담론

Abstract

This paper was written on the purpose of illuminating the new orientation of writing ahistory of narrative fictions in Korea and researching on Korean literature in the ageswithout the ideology of ‘National Study’. First of all, I mentioned the critically changedconditions of post-cold-war era that point out the new circumstances for the studies on‘National Literature’. The study on Korean literature that once had an important membershipin the ‘National Study’ is now just a part of Korean studies in general. A step for universalitywithin the field of ‘National Study’ has a limit in itself that shows a remarkableexample in Jo Dong-il’s works on ‘the history of world literature’. In the field of writing a history of Korean literature, the confrontation of the theory of ‘transplanted literature’ andthat of ‘internal development’ is illusionary in that both of them insists the truth in thewrong way. We can have a new perspective on writing a history of narrative fictions inKorea when we consider the three points : attributes of novel as a modern genre, themulti-layered nature of ‘Soseol[소설]’ in Korean terminology, and the effect made by thecohesion of a writing history on narrative fictions and the ‘discourse on the origin’. In myrespect, the studies on Korean literature after post-National-Study have the possibility ofthree orientations : positivism, area study, and humanities. The ethical momentum of‘National Study’ can be preserved in the third.