Prof. Ko Myung-Chul (Dept. Of Korean Language and Literature), Published New Books, ‘World Literature, Beyond’ and More

Professor Ko Myeong-cheol (Dept. of Korean Language and Literature) published two new books.

The subtitle of the first book, “World Literature, Beyond” (Somyung Publishing) is “Defacing aestheticism, Vigilance, Imagination of Liberation”

International literature, which is not widely known, such as Japanese Korean literature, Okinawan literature, Asian literature, and African literature, was focused on major works. Korean literature in Japan dealt with Kim Seok-beom's novel "Hwasan Island", Kim Si-jong's poetry collection "Niigata" and "Horizontal Line". Okinawan literature introduces Medoruma's novels "The Forest of Memory" and "Rainbow Birds," and Matayoshi Eika's novel "The Pig's Retribution." Asian literature looked at Vietnamese writer Baonin's novel "The Sorrows of War", Indian writer Aravind Adiga's novel "White Color", and Pearl Buck's novel "The Earth Trilogy" about China. African literature introduces Nurdin Farah's novel "The Map" and Louis Ngkosi's novel "The Song of the Black Bird." In addition, individual reviews on North Korean literature, Palestinian literature, and Third World literature were also grouped together.

The second book is “The Gravity of Literature” (b books). This book is a collection of criticisms devoted to the concreteness of works that specifically testify to the reality where coexistence and coexistence are broken, and narratives of defeat and disillusionment appearing in history. 'The Gravity of Literature' was subtitled 'the lowliness of criticism facing history and reality'. If the experience of defeat in our history and the tedious life of the present reality are exposed as literary truth, criticism will have no choice but to have the gravity of falling and approaching them completely. The author said, “If you forcefully criticize the work by unreasonable theories and concepts, the concreteness of the criticism evaporates as it deviates from the true reality of the work. Such criticism, which neutralizes the concreteness of our lives and reality, is bound to lose its vitality as criticism, and it means that the gravity of criticism has been lost.” In this sense, “the lowliness of criticism” as a subtitle is ironic and provocative. If there is a gravity, it should fall down.

'The Gravity of Literature' regards the task of criticism as "as much as exploring humans and the world by attempting critical intervention in contemporary life and reality through works as a medium, we must focus on the concreteness of human life and reality." This task is the basis of criticism, so it is commonplace, but the author emphasizes that if so, radical criticism must be urgently carried out.

Related article (Korean): http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/book/990302.html