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Exploring the literary magazine, “New Literature”

  • Korean Language & Literature
  • 2015, (95), pp.389-414
  • Publisher : Korean Language & Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

Baek, Soo-in 1

1조선대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

“New Literature(신문학),” whose publication was first launched in Gwangju during the Korean war when Seoul was, taken by, and mostly in the hands of, the North Korea, emerged not just as a simple literary coterie magazine published in a mid-sized southwestern city away from Seoul, but performed its valuable role as a literary outlet that bears particular significance for our history of modern literature. The magazine, as a pure literary magazine, contributed much to maintaining synchronic connections between Seoul-based central areas and regional communities located away from Seoul, and in a diachronic sense, to filling in the literary vacuum during the war. It functioned as an important bridge that connected previously-published literary magazines such as “Baek-min” (백민, 1945-1950), Moon-yea (문예, 1949-1950), which disappeared during the war, with postwar literary outlets such as “Literary Art” (문학예술, 1954-1957) and “Modern Literature” (현대문학, 1955-present), “Liberal Literature” (자유문학, 1956) and so forth, which later turned into general literary magazines covering varied areas of literature. Published in “New Literature” during its lifetime were twenty-seven poems by fifteen poets and twelve short stories written by eight novelists. Also included were 15 essays by 14 essayists, 4 critiques by as many literary critics, and 6 translated works by 4 translators, totalling 64 works by 41 writers. In particular, the magazine provided an important literary venue for such well-known works, later included in Korean textbooks for secondary school students, as Ganggangsullae by Dongjoo Lee, So-na-gi (Shower) by Soonwon Hwang, and other critically acclaimed literary works, to make their first appearance. This clearly indicates the essential role of, and the well-respected status of, “New Literature” in our history of modern literature. Hyunseung Kim, who launched and edited the magazine, emphasized two important considerations. First, he employed a process at which all comments from reviewers were combined and judged by the editorial board in order to achieve and maintain rigorous review processes for all authors/writers. Second, to overcome its own regional boundary, Kim made an effort to upgrade the status of the magazine as a nationwide literary outlet by helping widen its (potential) contributors’ scope of activities. New Literature as a highly respected literary magazine, although it did not last long and was in fact buried in history after 4 issues, played a critical role in bridging the two time points in the history of modern literature in Korea, that is, from the corerie magazine era to the general literary magazine era.

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