It is generally accepted that 1970s' criticisms are best approached with the notion of the confrontation of Munhak-kwa-Jisung versus. Chanjak-kwa-Bipyung, but that approach could erase a lot of momenta latent in the intellectual history of 1970s. This...
It is generally accepted that 1970s' criticisms are best approached with the notion of the confrontation of Munhak-kwa-Jisung versus. Chanjak-kwa-Bipyung, but that approach could erase a lot of momenta latent in the intellectual history of 1970s. This thesis investigates the spiritual common basis of so-called 4.19 generation critics who had appeared on the scene not long before and soon would have their prime times.
Dongil Cho's multi-volumed General History of Korean Literature (HanKukMunHakTongSa), which had been planned in mid-1960s and whose volume 1 was published in 1982, was indebted much to the rise of the theory of internal development and it is related debates about periodization in the circles of Korean History. This theory of internal development, mainly intended to overcome the colonial view of korean history(i.e. the notorious notions such as delay and heteronomy of korean history), was obsessed by method/attitude of the historiography. Hyun Kim's The History of Korean Literature(HanKukMunHakSa) was also included in this discourse field.
There was the leftist motifs in Yongseop Kim's studies that had empirically founded the theory of internal development, but Nakcheong Back tried to realize the motifs not by historiography but by literary criticisms. He adopted the theory of internal development between 1966 and 1969, and developed his own theories of Citizen Literature/National Literature on the basis of it.
There underlied the nationalistic longings to discover the universal motifs of world history(or western history) in the paradigm of 4.19 generation's criticisms which had a long influence on korean literature from the late 1960s. Despite the fact that there also existed the lefitist motifs in that aspirings, nationalism itself could not avoid the kinship with the state ideology and we can visibly see their relation made real in the korean contemporary history. This shows that whether it being historiography or literary criticism, 4.19 generation's writing, regardless of being leftist or rightist, could not escape from the category of Koreanology and paradoxically could not break out of the universalistic spell.