1920년대 초 사회주의사상의 수용과 『新生活』

Abstract

‘New Life Group’(NLG, hereafter) argued that there needed to be ‘new movement’ of ‘new life’ for a reorganization of life in order to reconstruct Korea under Japanese rule. The slogans for the ‘new movement’ were the ‘establishment of the culture of the common people’ and the ‘inspiration of liberal ideas’. ‘The culture of the common people’ refers to ‘the culture of labor’, which is grounded in anti-capitalism. Another movement in Japan-occupied Korea was the ‘inspiration of liberal ideas’ by introduction of new ideas. Especially, Marxism was emphasized. Among the thinkers of the ‘new ideas’ introduced were Kropotkin, Max Stirner, Paul Lafargue, and William Morris as well as Marx. They were regarded as the thinkers that criticized existing capitalism. NLG focused on the introduction of Marxism, and proclaimed in the journal, New Life, that Marxism was an orthodox perspective. This implied that various socialist ideas in the colonial Korea concentrated on Marxism. Among the subjects of Marxism introduced by NLG, ‘class struggle’ was the most emphasized one. It was stressed by NLG that labor fighting against capitalism and for socialism could play an important role in class struggle. That is, it was argued that, given an inevitable social evolution, the revolutionary working class could provide the power for social evolution, and historical development could take place through class struggle based on the activeness of working class. It is noteworthy that NLG emphasized the concept of the ‘historical development through class struggle’ as well as the ‘power’ of the transition in addition to the ‘inevitable socialism.’ This view provided the foundation for the topic of how the ‘power’ is organized. NLG described itself as a Marxist group. This indicates the Marxism not as embodied in the group but as the orthodox tendency, which is a characteristic of Marxism and Marxists in Japan-occupied Korea. The Marxism as the ‘orthodox tendency’ became embodied in the group as the socialist movement developed.