The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the theoretic basis and literary practices of Moonhak-kwa Jisung (Moonji) (Literature and Intelligence), one of the leading Korean literary magazines of the 1970s. The first step of this thesis is to focu...
The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the theoretic basis and literary practices of Moonhak-kwa Jisung (Moonji) (Literature and Intelligence), one of the leading Korean literary magazines of the 1970s. The first step of this thesis is to focus on the standpoint regarding Moonji as the coherent embodiment of literarism or aesthetic autonomy, based on the mistake accrued in preceding researches that resolves the theoretic root of Moonji in French structuralism. This point of view not only results in 1970s literature reverting to the 1960s literary controversy between Changbi and Moonji , or “participation literature” and “pure literature,” but also overlooks that Moonji was a dynamic field in which diverse stances struggled with one another. Thus, this study aims to verify the theoretic basis of Moonji as composed of various foreign theories, such as French structuralism, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, and literary sociology. In addition, this work attempts to examine the theoretic basis that contributed to forming the intrinsic aesthetic standard of Moonji connected to the literary criticism of the middle and late 1970s. Restoring theoretic basis would help understand the true nature of Korean literature in this period.
To achieve these ends, the second chapter of this thesis focuses on the meaning of Moonji accepting Western Europe theory in the context of 1970s Korean literature. The increasingly vocal critics of the 1970s criticized the existing literary circle for their impressionist criticism and accepted foreign literary theory as the inevitable measure that enabled objective reflection on the problems in the Korean literary field. For Moonji, the meaning of “foreign” signified “Western Europe,” regarded as the manifestation of critical thinking, as well as a spiritual homeland, in contrast to “the United States,” which was considered materially wealthy, with a culture of consumption. Although French structuralism and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School have developed respectively in the Western history of intellectual movements, Moonji accepted the two in the same period because the critical mind must introspect and analyze Korean society and Korean literature objectively.
Additionally, the third chapter deals with the fact that French structuralism was accepted as the scientification of literary study or the discourse of modernization, rather than the method of literary criticism, and it was applied to Kim Yoonsik and Kim Hyun’s Korean Literary History (1972–1973), the literary practice of Moonji that was the description of the history of modern Korean literature. The texts regarding structuralism in early Moonji were the main writings that criticized Sartre’s existentialism. Meanwhile, in the middle and late 1970s, writings increased remarkably in Moonji that emphasized structuralism not as a literary trend, but an objective methodology of literary criticism. However, structuralism was barely applied to literary criticism individually. It is necessary to note that Moonji’s involvement with structuralism was not only related to aesthetic autonomy along with the French literary field, but also, more importantly, to the literary, social, and political conditions in Korea at the time. Moonji accepted structuralism not as a methodology for literary criticism, as Moonji ostensibly insisted, but as a sort of modernization discussion alongside terms such as “objectivity” or “literary science.” It was an abstract discussion for a literary theory, but it had an opportunity to take concrete shape when connected to Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism applied to Kim Yoonsik and Kim Hyun’s Korean Literary History (1972–1973).
The fourth chapter of this work analyzes the fact that Moonji’s interest in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School originated from the attempt to introspect regarding the status and the meaning of Korean literature rather than from Marxist social criticism or the resistance to the dictatorial government. As of the late 1970s, a mid interest in an industrial society and mass culture in the academic world, Moonji accepted the critical theory of the Frankfurt School in earnest. Among the critics and writers of Moonji, they easily agreed on an industrial society; however, their perspectives on mass culture was different, since the mass culture served as momentum to contemplate the status and role of Korean literature in an industrial society. It appeared in Kim Hyun’s The Evolvement and Coordinate of Korean Literature, which defines “real” literature as critically reflecting the suppression of society, creating distance from both “participating literature” and “popular literature.” This standard became the grounds on which critics such as Kim Byung-ik, Kim Chi-soo, and Oh Sang-geun spoke highly of the literature, which criticized an industrial society.