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This paper attempts to examine the discourse on “the double project of modernity,” propounded by Paik Nak-chung, a towering presence for decades in the Korean literary scene and the civil movements as well. He presents the doctrine of “the double project of simultaneously adapting to and overcoming modernity” in an international conference in 1998, an idea always working in a seminal state behind his critical works from the late 1960s. In the 1990s, however, having come to realize the systemic nature of the national division of Korea, Paik begins to give a full account of how we will overcome the national division: we have to create a kind of flexible confederation between North and South Korea that will enable us to carry out the double project of modernity. Under the current escalating political and military tensions on the Korean peninsula, it is of particular importance for academics in Korean higher education to address challenges Paik’s discourse poses.

This article examines Paik Nak-chung’s theory of the division system in discursive relation to both national literature theory and double project theory, offering a critical reading of Hwang Seok-young’s The Guest. In light of the challenges posed by the neo-Cold War era, this study contemplates the contemporary relevance of The Guest and the messages embedded within Paik’s literary criticism. Chapter 2 examines the critical intersection of division theory and the theory of national literature, questioning the claim that national literature can serve as a surrogate for a literature that transcends division, while acknowledging its dual nature. Chapter 3 focuses on the analysis of Paik’s critical discourse on Hwang Seok-young’s The Guest, shedding light on why it can be seen as an inverted manifestation of Georg Lukács's realism. Chapter 4 assesses both the theoretical potential and critical limitations of Paik’s theory of division system within the context of the double project agenda. Chapter 5 concludes the discussion by highlighting how Paik’s call to ‘read’ The Guest through the lens of a double project highlights the challenges inherent in such an approach, and proposes the adoption of a generational perspective as a new methodology for interpreting The Guest. By positing that any potential reconciliation found in The Guest is not between Christianity and Communism, but rather between past and future generations (in the future), this paper illuminates the intricate and contemporaneous nature of Hwang Seok-young’s The Guest and Paik Nak-chung’s literary criticism with renewed immediacy and pertinence.

This paper is a work to compare Dostoevsky, a Russian novelist in the mid to late 19th century, and Lawrence, a British novelist in the early 20th century. Some critics evaluate the transition from Lawrence’s representative novels, The Rainbow (1915) and Women in Love (1920), as ‘the transition from Tolstoyan The Rainbow to Dostoevskyeyan Women in Love.’ This paper examines this transition through the similarities between Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s narrative methods and Lawrence’s. Through this work we examine what meaning the topic ‘Dostoevsky and Lawrence’ can have. On the other hand, Bakhtin, Lawrence’s contemporary and a well-known Dostoevsky researcher, is compared to Lawrence. Through an examination of Lawrence’s ‘exess’ and Bakhtin’s ‘izbytok’, we examine the similarities between Lawrence’s philosophy and Bakhtin’s philosophy

There are two major approaches to Korean null objects: one is the argument ellipsis analysis, and the other is the null pronoun analysis. These two approaches make different predictions regarding the reading preference among two possible interpretations (strict reading vs. sloppy reading). However, there has been limited quantitative research conducted to test the predictions of each approach. This paper focuses on four unresolved questions on the issue and provides quantitative data to advance ongoing theoretical debates regarding Korean null objects. In the experiment conducted, participants read sentences and indicated their interpretation of null objects. The experiment reveals four new observations: 1. A consistent preference for the strict reading in null object constructions. 2. An interpretation discrepancy between overt pronouns and null objects. 3. General acceptance of a sloppy reading for null arguments by Korean native speakers. 4. The absence of priming effects from a full-fledged nominal phrase or a pronoun on the processing of null objects. These four observations challenge both approaches to Korean null objects and suggest that further quantitative research is needed to better understand the syntactic nature of null objects.

It has been demonstrated that structural priming affects ambiguity resolution. However, whether structural priming affects the processing of silent ambiguous structures has not been discussed in depth. This study investigates the impact of structural priming on the comprehension of silent ambiguous structures, focusing on null object constructions in Korean. These constructions are ambiguous in terms of how the null object is linked to its referent. An experiment was conducted to examine how Korean native speakers interpret null object constructions, and the results show that they are likely to interpret a null object in the target sentence in a manner consistent with how they processed a null object in the preceding prime sentence when both the prime and target sentences include a null object. Compared to a previous study that did not observe priming effects, we conclude that priming effects in comprehending a null object could be restricted within the context where the source of ambiguity is repeated between the prime and the target.

Sentences involving negation and quantifiers can introduce ambiguity, and speakers from different languages often exhibit varying preferences for scope interpretation. This study investigated to what extent Chinese- and Russian-speaking children, who learned Korean as a second language (L2), demonstrate native-like scope interpretations. Additionally, we examined whether their interpretive biases in L2 were modulated by various processing factors, including L2 word retrieval speed, L2 proficiency, and working memory. Results from truth-value judgment tasks revealed that the learners displayed interpretation patterns that closely resembled those of native Koreanspeaking children. Furthermore, the L2 children were less likely to converge on native-like interpretations as they encountered greater challenges in L2 word retrieval. In contrast, neither their L2 proficiency nor working memory capacity modulated the learners’ scope interpretation tendencies. The findings suggest that the ability to efficiently retrieve words from memory may play a significant role in L2 scope interpretation, lending support to the hypothesis that lexical processing can impact sentence comprehension.

The objective of this study is to examine the political use of the memory of the India-Pakistan partition, the establishment of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, and the possibility of healing trauma resulting from the partition. To achieve this, the study analyzes the partition as a historical event, examines the anniversaries and commemorative events established by the INC and BJP, and assesses the impact of the establishment of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day on the healing of trauma resulting from the partition. This study primarily focuses on literature analysis, and it reviews related data, existing studies, and analyzes relevant news. Both the discourse immediately after the partition and the BJP’s discourse point to the Hindu-Muslim conflict and the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan as factors in the partition. However, the primary factor is not the Hindu-Muslim conflict but the political conflict between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League during the time leading up to the partition. The introduction of a representative system played a major role in the conflict between two groups. Therefore, the partition of India-Pakistan was caused by a collaboration between the British colonial government which introduced a representative system, the Muslim League which was concerned about the political representation of Muslims as a minority, and the Indian National Congress which failed to understand or embrace the concerns of the Muslim League. During the INC period, anniversaries were established with the main keywords of independence struggle and national development. During the BJP’s years in power, its identity as a Hindu nationalist party was revealed by establishing anniversaries centered on figures or historical events that were not noticed by the INC government and Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. Although the keywords of the establishment of anniversaries are different, it is the same that each ruling party has revealed its identity through the politicization of historical memory. The INC ignored the memory of the tragedy of partition, but the BJP established Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. This could be a turning point in healing trauma resulting from the tragedy of partition. Trauma at the national level must be premised on reflection and agreement between both the perpetrator and the victim. If it is a memorial day that aims to sincerely heal the trauma of partition, it should be premised on communication between India and Pakistan, both of which suffered the devastation, rather than placing blame on Pakistan or the INC. It should be noted that establishing Partition Horrors Remembrance Day without such a careful premise may exacerbate old wounds and promote conflict instead of fostering healing.