[Feature] “Canon Formation” in National Literature and the Midang Puzzle: The March 1 Movement Centennial and the “Autonomy” of Literature / Kang Kyung-seok
The Quarterly Changbi 182, Winter 2018
Abstract
Tracing the contention between social movements for national goals and literature since the March 1 Movement, whose centennial we celebrate next year, literary critic Kang Kyung-seok reminds us what tasks literature has to take on in our times. In particular, he analyzes Midang’s pro-Japanese poems and discusses how the pursuit of literary autonomy was refracted because of the colonial situation. Through this analysis, he offers not only new critical literary criteria for the debate around Midang’s achievements, but also important suggestions in our exploration of literary possibilities in this new phase which has been opened by the Candlelight Revolution. It also includes a proposal that we should overcome the division within Korean literature south and north of the DMZ at the current juncture of a transformation of the division-based system.