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Liberal and Classical Education of Korean Universities and Cultural Politics of Listing ‘The 100 Selected Classics’

  • The Journal of General Education
  • 2021, (17), pp.37~79
  • DOI : 10.24173/jge.2021.10.17.2
  • Publisher : Da Vinci Mirae Institute of General Education
  • Research Area : Social Science > Education > Field of Education > General Education
  • Received : September 10, 2021
  • Accepted : October 19, 2021
  • Published : October 31, 2021

CHEON, JUNGHWAN 1

1성균관대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Liberal education of universities has been determined and varied by the changes in the social status of universities. In this vein, “liberal and classical education” is likely to be reorganized in line with the crises facing today's universities. This study collects and compares all the reading lists for undergraduate students ― the so-called “best book recommendations”, “Must-Read Classics”, or “great books” ― selected by the twelve major universities, such as Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, Kyung Hee University, Chonnam National University, Kyungpook National University, Pusan National University, KAIST, POSTECH, Hanyang University, and Sogang University. Through such a comparative analysis, this study aims to show what Korean prestigious universities have “agreed” and “standardized” on liberal and classical education and to explore the fissures and contradictions of such a canonization. By examining classical texts selected and recommended by the universities as “Classics for Liberal Education”, this paper attempts to locate liberal and classical education both synchronically and diachronically, based on the “differences” and “repetitions” among the listed books. Notably, Chinese classical texts, such as the Four Books and Three Classics and Western books in the modern times have been a large portion of the most important Classics selected and recommended by Korean universities. In this regard, Korea's canonization of classics is no other than a product of Korean intellectual history (tradition) and geopolitical order centering on East Asian or Western European powers. This research also expands to a comparison of today's reading lists with those in the 1960s when “liberal education” from America was introduced to Korea for the first time and the so-called great books of classics started to be selected and listed under its influence.

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