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The Avant-garde: Contextualizing Korean Literature and Experimentation | LIST

About the Article

Article
http://list.or.kr/content/avant-garde-contextualizing-korean-literature-and-experimentation
Journal
list_Books from Korea
Issued Date
-
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
SOUTH KOREA
City
Seoul
Book
-
Writer
Yi Sang , Seo Jeong-in , Yi In-seong , Kim Yeonsu , Park Min-gyu

About the Author

  • Yi Sang
  • Birth : 1910 ~ 1937
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Sang
  • Family Name : Yi
  • Korean Name : 이상
  • ISNI : 0000000358137117
  • Works : 70
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

The Avant-garde: Contextualizing Korean Literature and Experimentation   By Lee Kwang-ho on Nov 09 2014 07:54:36 Special Edition 2011 The history of modern Korean literature has been one that identifies the writing of literature with the question of what is literature. On the one hand the rise of realism and lyric poetry put verisimilitude before everything else; while on the other hand they treated the question of what it means to write as the subject of literature. Realism and lyric poetry are similar in that both seek to identify reality (or emotions) with the language of literature. Avant-garde literature in Korea departs from this mechanism of identity by objectifying the language and subject of literature, seeking instead to examine the difference that lies between the two. The writers in this school are associated with a strong commitment to writing in the modernist tradition. This does not mean that their interest lies in modernism for its own sake. Questioning the identity of literature is also one of the most modern questions that can be asked about literature. The awakening of self-examination may be called one of the defining characteristics of modernism, and modern Korean literature took up that trend by writing about the question of writing itself. This involved proving in the most avant-garde language that the modern was the most realistic, rather than simply seeking out new experiments. In other words, these writers have avoided pitting modernity as a posturing against realism as an ideal. This aesthetic effort was made possible by the socio-cultural conditions of modern society that gave birth to a new generation of literary subjects as well as the cultural awareness that a freer literature could be the sharpest critic of reality.

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