사이드의 휴머니즘론과 이의 한국적 전유

Edward Said’s Humanism and Its Appropriation to Today’s Korea

‘Human beings’ seem to have disappeared in today’s literary and cultual theories. This is partly because the concept of man or human being is too broad and ambiguous to be included in theoretical discourses. However, the more serious causes of the disappearance can be found in the trend of anti-humanism in recent theories. Human agency is being excluded in the structuralist and post-structuralist understanding of society and history. The historical and political abuse of humanism is another cause of the disappearance. We see such examples in the Nazi’s genocidal violence on Jews and the American invasion into another countries in the name of humanism. In spite of anti-humanistic theories and historical abuses of humanism. the value of human beings cannot be discarded in the study of the human history and society. Edward Said’s Humanism and Democratic Criticism is an attempt to construct a new humanism in which traditional Euro-centric inhumane humanism can be overcome. He says the new humanism’s project is “to be critical of humanism in the name of humanism.” For this, he revives the philological tradition of language studies, and thereby the tradition of humanities. As far as the humanities is the study of human achievements in history, it is the stakeholder of humanism. Consequently, the humanities and humanism cannot be separated from each other. For Said, the new humanism is receptive in that it reserves the tradition of philology and is resistant in that humanists should be critical of today’s inhumane violences of political and economic powers. In order for any imported theory or thesis to be relevant in a given society, it needs to be properly appropriated to the society. A relevant appropriation of Saidian humanism in the Korean society would be to disclose the treacherous humanism of powers, especially transnational capitalistic powers. Today’s Korean society is in need of humanist scholars’ intervention into the widespread political and economic violation of human values.