• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.52
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• pp.223-251
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• 2018

This paper comparatively considered how Korea and Japan address the concept of 'postwar' in descriptions of their literary history. In Japan, 'postwar' refers to the period after World War II (Asia-Pacific War). This word implies a variety of contexts such as collapse, poverty, confusion, calendar reform, reconstruction and restoration as well as a series of historical events such as war, war defeat, and American occupation; and so it has been treated in Japanese society a significant period. In the history of Korean literature, it is after national liberation that the word 'postwar' appeared; however, it has usually indicated 'the period after the Korean War.' The question is that although the term of postwar refers to periods after different wars, Koreans used the term of postwar also in the same way as Japan, and their concept of postwar overlaps with the concept of prewar or postwar used in Japan, and accordingly, side effects are produced that fail to grasp properly the independent characteristics and significance of the Korean War. In conclusion, the Korean War brought about contrasting effects on the history of Korean and Japanese literature. While the Korean War meant a start after the war in Korean literature, it became a turning point marking the end of postwar in Japanese literature. Such different perceptions on postwar also have major implications in that perceptions represent postwar discourses in today's Korea and Japan.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.161-188
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• 2020

This paper seeks to expand the scale of literary history by restoring and analyzing the whole aspect of Kwak Hashin's works, which has so far been studied little. For this purpose, I notice the rupture of discontinuity of his works which is greatly divided into the colonial period and post Korean war period. And the characteristics of each works can be analyzed based on the three axis, local(colonial period), jobless person(post-war period), and Homo Economicus(some short stories, and popular novels in post-war period). In Chapter 2, 'Local-the world of Munjang', I evaluated that Kwak Hashin's novel, which had been published in the late 1930s in the Journal of Munjang, embodied anti-modern aesthetic consciousness, as clearly revealing the sorrow for disappearing things, the pre-modern sense of time, and the preference for local. In Chapter 3, 'Jobless Person' and Chapter 4, 'The State of All People's Struggle against All People, The Appearance of Homo Economicus', the Korean society in late 1950s, which entered underdeveloped capitalist countries after Korean war, can be characterized by two contrasting male-gender, one is the jobless, incompetent male, and the economic man on the other hand. In the late '50s, Lumpen(=Jobless Person) novels showed the problems of the Korean economy through incompetent male character. The intelligent men took the path to survival rather than morality or intimacy, projecting their own incompetence and anxiety to women/wives. In the popular novels Women's Song and The Shadow of the Fig Tree, achievement-oriented male figures who betrayed their colleagues, and exploited women's sex by using love relationships to rise to the top appeared. They can be defined as the Homo Economicus who embody the state of universal struggle against all people. These novels showed the formation of the masculinity in post Korean war period, which pursued the survival of the fittest, borrowing form of popular novel. As we have seen so far, Kwak Hashin needs to be re-evaluated as an writer who expanded the modern literary history in the outside of literature. He was the last generation writer written in Korean late colonial period, and provided the model of postwar literature by borrowing the form of journalism and popular novels.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.47
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• pp.131-161
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• 2017

This work introduces Nada (1944) by Carmen Laforet in humanities in Korea, to add new knowledge about Spanish literature and therefore broaden and enrich humanities. When the opera prima of this Barcelonian author came to light, critics and the readers were shocked at a work that departed from the expiring Spanish novel under Franco's anti-intellectual and anticreative regime, to renew it indefinitely. That was more than 70 years ago, and today the freshness of Andrea's story continues to be prevail, thanks to its most outstanding feature: polyphonic ambiguity in its text, which allows the novel to include and develop different and contradictory meaning. This investigation addresses several critical readings of Nada, produced and extended inside and outside Spain. These readings, together, reveal the exceptional flexibility and complexity of Nada, a work of fiction that reflects and recreates multiple aspects of the human being.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.143-177
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• 2021

In the history of Korean literature, evaluations on 『Jirisan』 (Lee Byeong-ju) are bisected. Some evaluate it as a novel of authentic records which reproduces the history before and after the emancipation objectively while others say it takes advantage of anti-communistic ideology. This study analyzes that difference is resulted not from the distinction of perspectives but from cracks in the text. This is associated with the process of 『Jirisan』's publication. 『Jirisan』 was published serially in 『Sedae』 from 1972, and then, part of the manuscript was published in 1978 and the whole edition published in a series came to be republished in 1981. After that, in 1981 and 1985, part of the follow-up story was printed on the magazine, and then, with the memoirs of those two years as materials, the sixth and seventh volumes were again published through 'revision'. In other words, the publication of 『Jirisan』 is divided into that of the edition published in a series and that of the edition published in 1985 including the contents of revision. The theme of the work, 『Jirisan』 differs according to the point of its completion you may think of. This researcher pays attention to the difference of perspectives between the contents up to the fifth volume and those of the sixth and seventh volumes. Particularly, his evaluation on 'partisans' seems to have changed. In the edition published in a series, he extended 'partisans' into the independence movement in the Japanese colonial era under the Revitalizing Reforms system and adopted the representation of 'partisans' three-dimensionally whereas in the sixth and seventh volumes, he reproduced 'partisans' as beings that were the 'doctrinaire' and 'vicious' 'Reds' and had to be punished. In brief, with 『Jirisan』, he represented 'partisans' in the background of history before and after the emancipation and segmented the discourse, representation and ideology of the Cold War system, but in the process of revision, he stitched up 'partisans' as beings that were evil and losers. Consequently, with 『Jirisan』, he revealed the process of division and contention that proceeded around anti-communism/capitalism within the abyss of the 1970's to 80's and reproduced 'partisans' as beings that were either 'hostile (the Reds)' or 'unknown (losers)

• East European & Balkan Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.153-186
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• 2013

Literature has been special for the Polish who suffered from the numerous invasions from surrounding countries for her geographical location at the center of Europe. In the late 18th century at a time when Poland was divided and ruled by Russia, Prussia and Austria, literature played an important role in uniting Poland. During the 2nd world war in which Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union and by Germany, and during the Cold War period under socialism system(1948~1989), the Polish literature was in the front to keep unique national culture with overseas migration community at the center. The Polish Diaspora literature from 19th century up to now has naturally embodied national sufferings from foreign powers in their literary tradition linked to the problem of 'migration'. In addition, they belong to other cultural sphere, but keep their own unique identity, which is similar to Korean Diaspora literature to a great degree. This study has two stages. In the first stage, it figures out the formation and trend of the Polish Diaspora literature followed by their meaning in the history of Polish literature. In the second stage, specific texts (two dramas) are analyzed before and after system transition in 1989. * Before system transition: S. Mrożek, Emigranci (1974), * After system transition: J. Głowacki, Antygona w Nowym Yorku (1992) Mrożek and Głowacki had themselves migration experiences with high achievement and recognition in literature not only in Poland but also in the world. In their works, hardships as 'strangers' in foreign countries, emotional wandering and agony, nostalgia to lost home land and exploration of identity were described vividly. By comparing the 2 literature texts, this study attempts to trace the change of Diaspora consciousness which Polish migrants experienced in foreign countries with different political system like socialism and capitalism.