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Shin Gu-hyeon, a Korean Language and Literature Scholar Who Went to North Korea

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2024, 81(2), pp.113-152
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.81.2.202405.113
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : April 10, 2024
  • Accepted : May 10, 2024
  • Published : May 31, 2024

JEONG JONG HYUN 1

1인하대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to reveal a cross-section of modern Korean intellectual history through the life and academic trajectory of Shin Guhyeon, a Korean literature scholar who defected to North Korea. Tracing the biography of a long-lived intellectual can become a methodology in itself. The life of Shin Gu-hyeon, born in 1912, which traversed colonialism, liberation, division, and the Cold War, and continued into the 2000s, is an example of the refraction and transformation of modern Korean knowledge. This article examines the reading club activities that Shin Gu-hyeon had with his fellow students from the 11th class of the Arts Department during his time at Gyeongseong Imperial University. Next, it examines how his career developed at the Korean Language Society after graduation and how he published Yeoryu Siseon at the curatorship run by Im Hwa. It also traces the process of his being imprisoned for the Joseon Communist Party reconstruction movement, then being released and Joseon achieving liberation. After liberation, Shin Gu-hyeon worked as the principal of the Wonsan Political School, and was appointed as a professor with the establishment of Kim Il-sung University. After his appointment, he played an important role in North Korea’s language reform project by serving as the chairman of the faculty cell committee of Kim Il-sung University and the chairman of the Korean Language and Literature Research Association. As he went through a series of purges after the Korean War, Shin Guhyeon’s academic identity also underwent changes. From an early age, Shin Gu-hyeon was interested in and conducted research on Joseon’s progressive traditions and subjectivity, such as classical literature such as the Silhak school and the progressive realism of KAPF. As the mid-tolate 1950s progressed, his academic work gradually shifted towards the independent literary arts emphasized by Kim Il-sung. Beyond the 1960s, Shin Gu-hyeon, who had once been a Marxist-based classical literature major at Gyeongseong Imperial University, transformed into a Juche literary scholar who preached Juche ideology.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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