경성제대 출신의 두 영문학자와 매슈 아놀드: 김동석과 최재서를 중심으로

Two Literary Critics from Kyoungseong Imperial University and Matthew Arnold: Dongseok Kim and Jaeseo Choi

  This paper examines the works of Dongseok Kim and Jaeseo Choi and their influences on the early English literary studies in South Korea. The two critics who majored in English literature at Kyoungseong Imperial University are said to be among the representative English scholars during the 10 year period just after Liberation from Japan. Despite some different careers and perspectives, it is noticeable that both of them were deeply influenced by Matthew Arnold"s concepts of criticism.   Choi, 7-year senior to Kim, judges Arnold to be a literary ‘critic’ - not a literary ‘theorist’ - having healthy and profound thoughts and practicing them through a variety of critical works. He emphasizes Arnold"s definition of literary criticism as “‘disinterested’ endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.” Here he interprets Arnold"s ‘disinterestedness’ only as the process of "speculation" far away from real life or history.   Kim focuses on Arnold"s concept of ‘literature as criticism of life.’ A poet or a critic has to see life as it is through observing it as concrete as possible. He also regards Arnold as a critic of modern spirit battling against the unfairness and narrow-mindedness of his contemporaries. Considering the efforts to understand English literature (or literary criticism) in their own thoughts and words, they might be positioned as the pioneers of academic English literary studies in South Korea.