『北鄕』과 새로운 문학장의 발견

Abstract

In the 1930s, young writers in Kando Yongjeong independently launched the “North Facing Flower” literary association. In the early days after its foundation, this group made up of teachers from the Kando Yongjeong Middle School organized a literary lecture and published a literary coterie magazine titled 北鄕 through which they made it their purpose to culturally enlightened the migrate populace of Kando and awaken their historical sense while appealing to the establishment of a second living foundation in Kando after facing the darkness of colonial rule. The literary coterie magazine published by “North Facing Flower,” 北鄕, had only 4 issues published between 1935 and 1936 but it has great literary meaning in the fact that it was the first 純literary magazine independently published in Korean by Chosun national intellectuals who have received modern education in Chosun or Japan in Manchuria. Their literature which was established not in Chosun but in a foreign country of Kando depicted the Chosun people suffering under the dark and unequal reality of the colonial government, bringing out the exotic atmosphere along with the affectionate yet regrettable feelings towards the compartiots living in Manchuria, leading to the encouragement for the populace who have left their hometown to migrate to the rough and wild Manchuria and establish another living foundation. This conceived new potential and hope towards Manchuria, their second hometown and through the diaspora it was the process to establish their culture and further on create a new literary field. Since its foundation and until its dissolution, various Chosun national writers have directly and indirectly passed through “North Facing Flower” and it also served as a literary cradle that produced countless Chosun writers, forming the cornerstone for the Manchu-Chosun literary world. Virtuosos of the Manchu-Chosun literature such as Ahn Soo-kil, Kang Kyeong-a, Park Young-joon, Park Gye-ju and other writers were important representatives of the Manchu literary world as well as the Chosun literary world who have actively participated and they have used the detailed life of the Chosun people who have migrated to Manchuria as a source and have been able to bring out an even greater literature. Also, by starting the literary coterie magazine 北鄕 and for various tens of years afterwards the Manchu-Chosun Humanities flourished and the national literature took its part in filling the gap of the dark age where the Japanese colonial rule tried to annihilate the Korean language, remaining as an important cultural heritage.