모더니즘과 세계: ‘글로벌 모더니즘’의 국외 연구동향

Abstract

This paper introduces the recent development of “Global Modernist Studies” and explores the critical issues this new perspective raises in literary studies. With the increasing concern for global economy and transnational forms of political practices, Modernist studies has particularly been responsive to the new need for a “global” perspective. Alternatively expressed in terms such as “transnational” or even “planetary,” Global Modernist Studies seeks to expand the scope of the field by including so-far marginalized authors from diverse national and cultural traditions, thereby departing from the traditional, particularly “Western” framework that has shaped the defining line of the field. It should be noted, however, that the concern of Global Modernism goes beyond just establishing a more inclusive literary canon. Instead, this new perspective calls for a more fundamental rethinking of how we define “modernism,” and further, “modernity,” which leads to a profound reassessment of how we conceive the “world.” Although scholars have welcomed such a transformation in Modernist Studies, they have also voiced suspicion and worries about the potentially colonizing and homogenizing effects of Global Modernism. Scholars have warned about the danger of Western-based appropriation, as Modernist Studies enlarges its scope into a world-scale. Moreover, the radical expansion of the definition of “modernity” and “modernism” risks emptying out the meaning of the concepts; the radical relativization about what modernism/modernity means often deprives local practices of their firm embeddedness in the collective world history. Global Modernism invites us to think about how we can conceive “globality” while never giving up the perspective of the “local.” The difficult task of “Global Modernism” would be to avoid reproducing the expansionist logic of imperialism, without falling into the trap of relativization by making a transcending movement into happy coexistence of plurality. I argue that Global Modernist Studies can therefore benefit from a perspective that departs from epistemological conception of the world and instead thinks about the world as an ethical unit.