영어권 독자와 한국문학사: 피터 리의 『한국문학사』의 성취와 과제

Abstract

Considering the crucial importance of introducing the history of Korean literature to the English-speaking world, without which no viable recognition of the value and significance of individual works of Korean literature is conceivable, one cannot come to the conclusion that what Peter H. Lee offers in his undoubtedly monumental and epoch-making A History of Korean Literature, remaining as it does as the only book of its kind, leaves yet much to be desired. The lack of a clear principle in dividing the periods is one salient problem of the work, for mere dynastic units of political history (abandoned, however, for the chapters on twentieth century) mix uneasily with an unstated reliance on a certain notion of genre hierarchy predicated on a restricted notion of "literature" defined primarily as belles lettres (with the lyric occupying the highest position). The quality and strategy of writing about Korean literature could also have been less bland and vague, for the unadorned simple sentences that predominate Lee's account add little luster to what they supposedly are meant to achieve (i.e. proving the high quality of Korean literary classics), which in turn the paucity and poverty of quotations constantly detract and debunk. What reason an English-speaking reader, otherwise perhaps than those handful of Korean Studies students, would find in the pages of Lee's book to appreciate and admire Korean literature as a collective entity is not easy to surmise.