Meaning of Contact Zone Studies in the Area of Literature and Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of Contact Zone Studies in the Area of Literature and Culture and their academic possibilities. Contact Zone means a field where various cultures and values meet, interchange and fuse and coexist with each other. How do diverse, fuse cultures and valuese and co-create new things in Contact Zone? What is the culture formation principle in the consciousness of Contact Zone Studies? The cultural theory of M. Bakhtin and Y. Lotman explains the meaning of Contact Zone as a cultural formation principle. Through the concept of ‘otherness’, ‘transgressness’, ‘outsidedness’, Bakhtin argues that a new culture is formed in contact with other meanings of different cultures in the contact zone. According to Lotman, in the course of the formation of a new culture, the boundary is both an exclusive principle for distinguishing differences from other cultures, and a mechanism for integrating with them. The discussion of German immigrant literature provides many points to consider in understanding Korean literature in the age of multiculture. ‘Migrant Literature’ is works written by migrant authors who left their own hometown and live in an different culture. The current situation of German immigrant literature will be an appropriate case for predicting the future of Korean literature. In particular, how the German immigrant literature forms a relationship with mainstream culture, that is, the discussion of conflict, integration and mutual coexistence between the two cultures can be an important reference for understanding korean migrants and their culture.