김우종 비평 연구 = A Study of Kim Woo-jong’s Engaged Literature

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Kim Woo-jong’s literary world can hardly be understood apart from engaged literature. His career in literary criticism, together with his essays and other writings, is essential to understanding the formation and development of his literary thought. From his literary debut in the late 1950s to his later activities as a critic, professor, essayist, painter, and publisher, Kim consistently developed his work within the historical, geographical, and social conditions of modern Korea. This study examines Kim Woo-jong’s engaged literature by focusing on the relationship between his historical experience, biographical background, and critical practice.
Kim Woo-jong was born in 1929 in Seongjin, Hamgyongbuk-do, during the Japanese Colonial Period. His youth was marked by colonial oppression, linguistic violence, Liberation, the division of the Korean Peninsula, and the Korean War. Immediately after Liberation, the 38th Parallel was drawn around Kaesong, and the Korean War later intensified the pain of national division. For Kim, ideological conflict was not an abstract political issue but a traumatic reality that became inseparable from his life and literary consciousness, almost like a second skin. Therefore, Kim Woo-jong’s engaged literature should be distinguished from the social engagement of proletarian literature before the 1950s. Although both are concerned with the relationship between literature and society, Kim’s engaged literature emerged from the specific historical conditions of post-Liberation and postwar Korea.
The purpose of this study is to clarify the distinctive features of Kim Woo-jong’s critical activity and to examine the relationship between his critical principles and their practical realization. Literary criticism, more than any other literary genre, has the capacity to move freely across literature, history, society, and reality. Kim’s criticism of the 1950s and 1960s shows certain differences depending on whether he discusses classical literature, poetry, or fiction. Nevertheless, his criticism maintains a consistent principle. It is grounded in the self-establishment of the critical subject and in a purposive consciousness that seeks to connect literature with historical reality. In this sense, engagement in Kim’s criticism is not simply a political slogan but a critical attitude based on historical responsibility and ethical self-awareness.
Kim Woo-jong made his literary debut as a critic in 1957 through 『Hyundae Munhak』 with 「A Study on Metaphorical Methods」 and 「On Yi Sang」. His early criticism reveals an analytical interest in language, rhetoric, metaphor, and the internal structure of literary works. In 「A Study on Metaphorical Methods」, he analyzed metaphor through language units and classical poetry, including 「Seogyeong Byeolgok」. In 「On Yi Sang」, he discussed Yi Sang’s difficult poem 「Crow’s Eye View」 （Ogamdo） and approached obscure poetry as a modern poetic achievement requiring careful interpretation. These early works show that Kim’s criticism did not begin merely as ideological criticism. Rather, it developed from a close analysis of literary language and gradually expanded toward the problem of literature’s relation to society and history.
Kim’s criticism also engaged with Korean literary tradition. In his discussions of 「The Tale of Shim Chong」, 「The Tale of Chunhyang」, and 「The Tale of Janghwa and Hongryeon」, he did not simply inherit tradition as a fixed value. Instead, he attempted to reinterpret traditional narratives from a modern critical perspective. His view of tradition may be summarized in two aspects: the beauty and distinctive quality of Korean tradition, and the need to criticize elements within tradition that encourage passive obedience or non-resistance. In this respect, Kim’s criticism of classical literature already contains the seeds of his later engaged literature, for it seeks to connect literary inheritance with ethical reflection and historical renewal.
The 1960s were the period in which Kim Woo-jong’s engaged literature became most sharply articulated. In essays such as 「The Self-Deception of Purity」, 「Bankrupt Pure Literature」, 「The Purity of Literature and Ideology」, 「Man and His Literature in the Ruins」, 「Set Up a Signpost on That Land」, 「The Writer and Reality」, and 「The Rural Community and Literature」, Kim criticized the limitations of pure literature and argued for the social responsibility of literature. His criticism did not reject aesthetic value itself. Rather, it challenged the tendency of pure literature to exclude sociality, purpose, ideology, and realism when such exclusion became a way of avoiding reality. For Kim, literature could not remain indifferent to the wounds of colonial rule, war, poverty, division, and ideological conflict.
The debate between pure literature and engaged literature was not merely a literary dispute. It was also connected to generational conflict, literary authority, ideological tension, and the structure of power within the Korean literary circle. Kim Woo-jong participated in debates with writers and critics such as Yu Jong-ho, Kim Dong-ri, Kim Dong-rip, Lee O-young, and others. These controversies reveal the difficulty of defining engagement in postwar Korean literature. Engagement, a concept associated with Jean-Paul Sartre, refers both to social participation and to self-commitment. In Kim’s case, engagement was grounded not only in theory but also in lived experience. His criticism of works such as 「Obaltan」 read the suffering of literary characters in connection with the actual reality of refugees and postwar society. Thus, Kim’s engaged literature was formed at the intersection of literary interpretation, historical consciousness, and biographical trauma.
In the 1970s, Kim’s criticism expanded into the commercialism debate. As newspaper serial novels, mass media, and popular magazines became increasingly influential, he criticized the commercialization of literature and the tendency toward sensationalism and entertainment. His concern with realism was therefore not limited to the earlier debate over pure literature. It continued as a response to the changing media environment and the transformation of literary production. At the same time, Kim’s own life was deeply affected by political oppression. In 1974, he became implicated in the Literary Spy Ring Incident because of his advocacy of engaged literature and his writings published in 『Hanyang』, a Korean-language literary magazine in Japan. Although he was later found not guilty after thirty-seven years, he was dismissed from his teaching position, his books were banned from sale, and he experienced severe social and economic hardship.
Despite these difficulties, Kim Woo-jong did not abandon literary and artistic activity. During a period of forced silence and isolation, he devoted himself to painting and held oil painting exhibitions. His paintings often coexisted with literary themes, including poems such as 「Green Grapes」 by Yi Yuksa, 「The Nun’s Dance」 by Cho Ji-hun, and 「The Sea and the Butterfly」 by Kim Kirim. Motifs related to Yun Dong-ju and to butterflies on the barbed wire of the Military Demarcation Line also appeared in his artwork. These activities show that Kim’s literary consciousness extended beyond criticism into painting, essays, broadcasting, and public cultural practice. After returning to academia in the 1980s and later joining 『The Korea University Newspaper』 as editor-in-chief in 1995, he deepened his engaged literature into a broader movement of love and peace, particularly through memorial activities for Yun Dong-ju.
This study also considers the significance and limitations of previous studies on Kim Woo-jong. Existing research has examined his criticism in relation to tradition, pure literature, engaged literature, humanism, realism, and literary controversy. However, some studies remain limited in their treatment of his biographical experience, while others focus primarily on his positive achievements without fully examining the contradictions and tensions within his criticism. This study therefore emphasizes historical and biographical considerations, including direct testimony, interviews, documentary materials, and the author’s long-term experience of working with Kim in the literary field. Such an approach makes it possible to understand Kim’s criticism not only as a set of literary arguments but also as an embodied response to the historical violence of modern Korea.
In conclusion, Kim Woo-jong’s engaged literature was formed through the intersection of colonial experience, national division, war, displacement, ideological conflict, literary controversy, and political oppression. His criticism began with close attention to literary language and tradition, but it gradually developed into a broader critical practice that linked literature with reality, ethics, humanism, realism, love, and peace. Kim did not regard literature as an isolated aesthetic object separated from life. Rather, he understood literature as a field in which human dignity, historical responsibility, and social reality must be confronted. Therefore, the significance of Kim Woo-jong’s criticism lies in the fact that his engaged literature was not merely a theoretical position but a lived and embodied form of literary practice.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서 론 1
• 1. 연구목적 및 의의 1
• 2. 연구대상 및 범주 3
• 3. 선행연구 검토 8
• 4. 연구방법론 14
• Ⅱ. 김우종 비평의 문학사적 관점 17
• 1. 김우종 비평의 관점 17
• 1） 1950년대 언어단위 비평 18
• 2） 고전문학 비평의 양상 23
• 2. 현대소설 비평 27
• 1） 한국 현대소설 및 전쟁소설 비평의 형성 30
• 2） 세계소설사 인식과 비평 35
• Ⅲ. 참여문학과 문학 논쟁 39
• 1. 문학 논쟁의 전개 39
• 1） 순수/참여문학 논쟁의 형성 41
• 2） 1950~60년대 순수와 논쟁의 전개 45
• 3） 유종호와의 논쟁 46
• 4） 김동리와의 논쟁 49
• 5） 김동립과의 논쟁 53
• 2. 논쟁의 쟁점과 한계 56
• 1） 앙가주망과 '참여' 개념의 문제 57
• 2） 문단 내 파벌 갈등 59
• Ⅳ. 상업주의 문학론과 리얼리즘 62
• 1. 1970년대 미디어 문화와 문학 62
• 1） 상업주의 문학 비판론 64
• 2） 시대 변화와 리얼리즘 68
• 2. 김우종 문학관과 인간주의 71
• 1） 문학과 예술에 나타난 휴머니즘 73
• 2） '사랑과 평화' 사상 77
• 3） 양자택일적 사고의 특징 80
• Ⅴ. 결론 84
• 참고 자료 88
• ABSTRACT 97