EALC 26800/36800 Korean Literature, Foreign Criticism
Ever since the introduction of the modern/Western concept of "literature" to the early twentieth century Korea, literary production, consumption, and reproduction have gone hand in hand with the reception of the trends of "criticism" and "theory" propagated elsewhere, in the West in particular. This course examines the relationship between the ideas of "indigenous" and "foreign" as embodied by Korean writers in the fields of creative writings, journalism, and academia with a view to engaging and interrogating the idea of "national literature" and its institutional manifestations. It further examines artistic and theoretical endeavors by Korean writers and intellectuals to critically reflect upon and move beyond the unquestioned linguistic, ideological, and ethno-national boundaries.