2023, Vol.80, No.4

Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.89

pISSN : 1598-3021 / eISSN : 2671-7921
https://journal.kci.go.kr/snu-ioh

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