한국의 근대성 연구와 ‘근대주의’

Abstract

With the theoretical popularity of post-modernism petering out, it became much harder to discourse on the “post-modern” period and the task of elucidating modernity has become ever more important. Studies on modernity have thus far built up some notable achievements in Korean academia as well, with wide-ranging debates in the realms of history, social science, and literature. However, it does not mean that those studies have progressed in a highly structured manner. This paper explores whether such various discourses on modernity are indeed creating certain convergent points. First, some theoretical attempts to transcend the dichotomy between the Indigenous Development Discourse and the Colonial Modernization Discourse that generates long-standing debates in the Korean historical studies, will be investigated in an effort to understand the semantics of the modernity concept in those attempts. The Colonial Modernity Discourse will also be examined, as it supposedly presents fundamental criticisms on modernity, and it will be shown that the discourse has paradoxically led to the expansion of the boundaries of the modern as it defines the concepts of modernity and coloniality based on the archetypal postmodern logic which is highlighted by failure, lacuna, impossibility, and so on. Another noticeable element in the studies of modernity in South Korea is the problematics of overcoming the Eurocentric concept of modernity. In this regard, as some discourses aim to establish a different modernity concept grounded on peculiarly Korean or East Asian historical experiences, this paper seeks to evaluate how well those discourses have achieved their professed goal. A particular emphasis will be placed on the Confucian Modernity Discourse, which has been drawing much theoretical attention recently among “alternative modernity” discourses. In the conclusion, this paper underlines the importance of developing historical narratives unique to East Asia or Korea through redefining the coloniality concept. The task of overcoming ‘Modernism’ is also a remaining challenge, because modernity can never be fully elucidated insofar as the perspective is trapped in the modern horizon.