North Korean Literature Research Articles

광복 이후 북한 문단의 소설과 시에 나타난 술의 양태

The purpose of this paper is to find literary motifs that South Korean and North Korean literature can handle together even under different political systems. Previous studies have generally tended to focus on examining how the literature of present-day South Korea differs from that of North Korea when identifying certain aspects of North Korean socialist literature. The goal of this paper is to find out what literary motifs the literature of North and South Korea can nevertheless share. To this end, we looked into which materials most honestly reveal the instinctive side of humans as research subjects. It is considered to be none other than the alcohol and drinking culture that the South and the North have side by side. In other words, it is believed that Korean alcohol and its culture, which originated from myth, will be an excellent material that both South and North Korea can empathize with as human beings even today, without any special interpretation, and can be reinterpreted in a modern way. Accordingly, among the literary works published in North Korea from 1948 to the early 2000s, medium and short stories and poetry were the focus of the study. This period was a period in which division was solidified on the Korean Peninsula for nearly 70 years. According to the research method, the period was divided into four sections: liberation and the establishment of North Korea's independent government, the Korean War and post-war recovery, the Chollima Movement, and the Juche ideology and Juche period. This is because North Korean literature is inseparable from the transformation of the political system. In conclusion, we analyzed North Korea's political system and reality through the socialist constitution that North Korea advocates, and explained how the element of alcohol appears in North Korean literature as a factor that prevents us from losing humanity and humanity, which literature generally pursues. Next, the symbolic nature of alcohol was identified as a common literary motif that can be shared between South and North Korea.

북한의 공포감정 사회화 연구

This study analyzes the socialization of fear emotion in North Korea according to the attachment theory, paying attention to the fact that North Korean residents form attachments to their ‘parently leader’. To this end, we searched North Korean literature and conducted content analysis along with review of related theories. The results of the study are as follows. First, the North Korean media does not deal with the feelings of fear among North Korean groups at all. Fear is an emotion that appears only in enemies, failed socialist countries, and capitalist countries. Second, the North Korean media sensitively deals with the fear of out-of-groups according to the situation abroad, indirectly exposing them to the residents, and reinforcing secondary emotions that have converted fear into hatred and aggression. Third, North Korean education emphasizes emotional organization, a psychological process that organizes emotions, and through this, emotional socialization. This study enhances the understanding of North Korean society and people’s emotions by examining the characteristics of socialization of fear emotions in North Korean society based on the attachment theory.

해방 후 임순득의 ‘여성해방 의식’과 북한의 ‘장르문학’ 창작: 오체르크와 뿌블리찌스찌까에 대하여

Before liberation, Lim Sun-deuk worked as a novelist and critic of women’s literature, and wrote literature that steadily cultivated a sense of feminism by moving to North Korean literature. In North Korea, only short story novels and essays are known, but she has also created genre literature called ‘Och’erk’ and ‘bbubulizzisuzzikka.’ This article mainly deals with ‘Och’erk’ in 「In Warm Hands」 and ‘bbubulizzisuzzikka’ in 「The Holiday of Peace」. but we will explore the feministic consciousness of Lim Sun-deuk. In North Korean literature, Lim Sun-deuk’s sense of femininity is found to be ‘laborer-woman’ or ‘mother-woman’ in accordance with socialist ideas and systems. This seems to indicate Lim Sun-deuk’s limitations due to his ideological color, but considering that there were no ‘female writers’ or ‘female literature’ in North Korean literature at that time, it can be seen that he has already achieved feministic achievements. In this way, Lim Sun-deuk is the only writer who has served as a bridge between before liberation and after liberation with a sense of feminism.

한국전쟁기 북한문학의 번역과 욕망 읽기 ― 『문학예술』의 번역 텍스트를 중심으로

이 연구는 한국전쟁기(1950~1953) 북한문학이 구성하고자 하였던 사회주의 문학의 전형과, 세계문학에 관한 인식을 고찰한다. 이를 위해서 이 연구는 한국 전쟁기 북한문학 잡지 『문학예술』에 게재된 번역 글들을 조사하고, 그 특성을 해석한다. 이를테면 『문학예술』에 번역된 소설은 당시의 북한문학이 모범으로 삼는 문학의 전형을 짐작하게 하며, 번역된 평론은 당시의 북한문학이 무엇에 관심을 갖고 있었는가를 보여준다. 그러므로 이 연구는 우선 한국전쟁기 북한 잡지 『문학예술』에 게재된 번역 글을 조사하는 것에서 시작한다. 이 작업으로 전쟁기 『문학예술』 잡지에 게재된 번역 문학을 실증적으로 정리하고, 국가와 장 르별로 분류하는 한편으로, 해석을 더한다. 이로써 전쟁기에 발간된 문학지 『문학예술』의 번역 텍스트들이 어떠한 방식으로 전유되었으며, 미디어 내에 배치 되어 북한의 문학 텍스트들과 관계 맺고 있었는가를 검토한다. 이 과정을 통해 서 북한문학이 전범으로 삼고자 하는 바와 이들이 상상한 세계문학은 무엇이었 는가에 관하여 질문을 던진다.

북한 ‘구전문학’ 연구 초점의 변화와 김광조 『조선의 민속설화』

This article aims to trace the changes in the focus of “oral literature” research in the flow of North Korean folklore and literature, and reviews Kim Kwang-jo’s 『Oral Literatures of Joseon』(2015) as a work that shows significant changes since the 2000s. North Korea’s research on oral literature seems to have not been in full swing in the 1950s and 1960s under the background that “Joseon folklore” field was established mainly from historical and archaeological perspectives. Since then, as the distinction between the areas of “Joseon folklore” and “Joseon literature” became clear, the discussion of oral literature was transferred from folklore to literature and was mainly dealt with at the literary level until the 2000s. However, since the 2000s, especially in the 2010s, the theoretical review of oral literature has not been revealed, but only popular publications that re-write the work are found, but there is a tendency to discuss oral literature such as tales and legends as research in the folkloric field. Among them, Kim Kwang-jo’s 『Oral Literatures of Joseon』 is a new proposal by Kim Kwang-jo, a folkloric researcher, to reconsider the perspective and area of research in oral literature, showing a new trend in oral literature. As Joseon literature, it suggests the need to study the history and works of folktales in an independent way, away from the boundaries of oral literature studies. This trend shows that research on oral literature in North Korea has been called throughout the era, projecting the premise and orientation of various academic fields. Through this, it will be necessary to comprehensively review the changes in the focus and target of the study between the 1950s-60s and the late 2000s.

An Essay on the Aspect of Reproducing Mount Paektu Shown in North Korean Literature - Focusing on a Correlation with a Hereditary System

본고는 1950년대부터 2000년대 초반까지 북한 문학에 나타난 백두산의 재현 양상을 시기별로 짚어보는 시론이다. 이를 통해 북한 문학 속 백두산 담론을 항일담론과 주체사상, 혈통의 정당성, 그리고 2000년대 이후의 통일담론과 관련지어 고찰할 것이다. 북한에서 백두산은 ‘혁명의 성산’이자 ‘마음의 고향’으로 간주되며, 이에 더해 북한의통치방식-세습체제가 백두산의 형상과 긴밀하게 연관되어 있음에 주목할 필요가 있다. 1950년대 중반 이후 백두산과 관련한 수많은 전설 속에서 조선의 독립은 김일성의 탄생과 결부되었는데, 백두산 전설이 설파하는 항일무장투쟁은 궁극적으로 김일성의 위대함을 강조하는 것으로 귀결되었다. 또한 1980년대 이후에는 백두산 신화에 김일성의 아내인 김정숙이 들어오게 되면서, 시, 소설, TV드라마 등의 매체에서 항일 여전사로서 김정숙의 영웅성이 강조되는 것을 확인할 수 있다. 백두산 신화와 김정숙의 연계는 이어질 세습 통치를 공고하게 하는 발판이었는데, 김정일 대신 김정숙이 백두산과 연계되었던 이유는 사실성을 강조하는 북한 문헌에서 김정숙의 투쟁담은 김정일의 탄생신화보다 호소력을 가질 수 있었기 때문이다. 그런데 통치의 정당성을 확보하는 과정에서 실증적인 요소를 배제하고 백두산과 관련한 신화적인 배경에 기대어야 한다는 한계는 김정은 시대에 이르러 더욱 불거질 수밖에 없었다. 이 같은 점을 감안해, 향후 김정은과 관련해 만들어지는 백두산 전설을 비롯해 백두산 문학의 역사를 구체적으로 살펴볼 필요가 있다.

Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean Literature

Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean Literature

In the Southern Half of Our Republic: Cross-Border Writing and Performance in 1960s North Korea

AbstractThis article offers a revisionist perspective on the relationship between 1960s North and South Korean literature by showing how writers in the North engaged with and creatively rewrote works from the South. Contextualizing such practices within a longer history of cross-border reading in the North, the article highlights how North Korean poetry and drama from the immediate aftermath of South Korea's April Revolution of 1960 took up South Korean literature's image of the volcano and reimagined it as a symbol of North-South dialogue. The article then turns to Kim Myŏngsu's Mother of the South (1965), showing how the play rewrites the South Korean novelist An Tongnim's short story “Hope” (1963) in such a way as to engineer a convergence with a line of literary representations then being produced in the North about its own colonial-era “revolutionary heritage.” Finally, the article suggests that this convergence ended up reshaping such visions of North Korea's own revolutionary past and the figure of the militant mother that emerged within them.

Inside North Korean Literature: The Hidden Meaning of Narratives

Abstract This study examines the grammar of tension and appropriation in North Korean literature, thereby shedding light on the complex meaning and metaphors hidden within the external (literal) narratives of North Korean literary texts. The true meaning of North Korean literature is situated between the political reality and the tension created by its narratives. This tension, concealed within the constraints of custom and form, permeates the text and the spaces between the lines. Accordingly, when reading North Korean literature, in addition to considering the social and literary contexts of the text, one needs to be careful not to miss the hidden meanings held within. This study reads between the lines to examine the critical view of the current reality that North Korean literature is a metaphor for and the desires that are symptomatically expressed therein. Specifically, the focus is on North Korean science fiction, which uses a grammar of appropriation to discuss the realities of the present through narratives of the future.

『실낙원』의 남북한 번역 양상 연구 – 사탄의 재현을 중심으로 –

This study examines the translations of Paradise Lost translated in South and North Korea. Using Mona Baker’s Narrative Theory and Framing Concept and Kathryn Batchelor’s Paratext Concept as the theoretical basis, this study explores the representation of Satan in the source text and analyzes how its aspects were reframed in the South and North Korean translations’ paratext and main body. It specifically reviews the paratext’s preface and the commentary on the work, and it analyzes Satan’s appearance, action, and speech in the main body. The analysis shows that reframing took place mainly through selective appropriation and labelling during the translation process. In the paratext, the South Korean translation frames Paradise Lost as a Christian poem. The North Korean translation however transforms the source text into a radical political poem and reframes it as a communist narrative. Whereas the South Korean translation tends to weaken the positive narrative of Satan, the North Korean translation strengthens the positive narrative of Satan and relates it to the North Korean political narrative. The transformed Satan in the North Korean translation shares similarities with the role model of an autonomous communist common in the North Korean literature.

북한소설 『벗』 영역본의 명시화 전략 분석: 감정표현을 중심으로

As a North Korean novel, Friend, was selected as one of The Best World Literature of 2020 by Library Journal, an American trade publication for librarians, and was promoted as a Korean book that sold the most copies in France, the North Korean literature is gaining attention in the literary field. According to the cultural identification proposed by Edward T. Hall, the North Korean language and culture belong to high-context culture that exhibits less-direct verbal and nonverbal communication, whereas English and the English-speaking culture belong to low-context culture that relies heavily on explicit verbal skills for communication. Hence, when the North Korean novel is translated into English, the indirect or implicit messages need to be explicitly enunciated for greater understanding of the readers in the English-speaking culture. Out of many cultural elements that require explicitation, emotional expressions deserve a detailed investigation, since how accurately the emotions are translated holds a lot of sway over the comprehension and acceptance of the novel transferred from a different culture. Therefore, this study analyzes and categorizes the expilcitation strategies employed in the translation of Friend and seeks implications for translation of emotional expressions from high-context to low-context culture.

김정은 시대 북한의 금융제도 변화 - 북한 문헌 분석을 중심으로 - (Changes in North Korea’s Financial System During the Kim Jong-un Era - Based on North Korean Literature)

Korean Abstract: 본고는 김정은 집권 이후 추진된 금융부문에서의 개혁조치에 주목하여 그 변화의 내용을 북한 문헌을 중심으로 분석하고 개혁수준을 평가하였다. 분석 결과, 김정은 집권 이후 북한은 중앙은행과 상업은행이 조직적·기능적으로 분리된 것으로 나타났다. 또한 기업은 은행계좌에서의 현금 인출 및 기업간 현금결제가 허용되는 등 종전의 무현금 화폐가 수동적 화폐(passive money)에서 구매력이 있는 능동적 화폐(active money)로 일부 기능 할 수 있게 되었다. 중앙은행과 상업은행이 조직적·기능적으로 분리됨에 따라 중앙은행의 발권이 상업은행을 통한 화폐공급 방식으로 변화되었으며, 화폐유통구조의 변화도 함께 이루어져 상업은행의 신용창조 기능이 구현될 수 있게 되었다. 종합해보면, 사회주의계획경제의 은행 및 화폐·지급결제제도가 시장경제의 방식으로 변화되고 있음을 의미한다. 금융부문에서의 개혁은 제반 경제제도 변화를 뒷받침하고 공금융의 기능 회복을 위해 필요했던 것으로서 개혁수준의 측면에서는 진일보한 것이나, 아직 그 수준은 사회주의 체제 내에서의 변화인 과거 구소련의 페레스트로이카 시기 또는 중국의 개혁개방 초기와 유사한 것으로 평가되었다. 또한, 계획경제 유지 등의 제도적 제약요인과 공금융에 대한 신뢰 결여 등은 변화된 금융제도의 실효성 및 발전성을 제한할 것으로 평가되었다. 본고의 분석결과는 북한에서 발간된 문헌에 기초하고 있다는 점에 유의할 필요가 있다. 즉, 최근의 변화가 김정은 집권 이후의 청사진으로 일부 지역에서 시범적으로 추진된 것인지, 전면적으로 추진되고 있는지에 대한 실상은 설명하지 못한다는 한계가 있다. English Abstract: This paper analyzes the changes in financial reform during the Kim Jong-un era based on North Korean literature. We find that North Korea has systematically and functionally separated the central bank from commercial banks since the Kim Jong-un era began. In addition, enterprises have been allowed to withdraw cash from bank accounts and make inter-enterprise cash payments. In other words, nowadays non-cash currencies with passive money can partially serve as active money with purchasing power. With the systematic and functional separation of the central bank and the commercial bank, the issuance of the central bank changed to a money supply method through the commercial bank, and changes in the currency distribution structure have allowed commercial bank’s credit creation function to be implemented. This means that the banking system and the monetary·payment system of the socialist planned economy are changing in the way of the market economy. Reforms in the financial sector are believed to have been necessary to support changes in the economic system and to restore the function of the public financial sector. These changes have progressed in terms of the level of reform, but they are still considered similar to the period of the former Soviet Union's Perestroika or to the early period of China's reform and opening. In addition, it is assessed that institutional constraints such as maintaining a planned economy, and the lack of confidence in public finances limit the effectiveness and development of the financial system. It should be noted that these results are based on literature published in North Korea. In other words, there is a limit in the fact that such recent changes have been carried out on a trial basis in some areas, or have been carried out in a full-scale manner with a blueprint, since Kim Jong-un's inauguration.

북한 문헌에서 경관의 시각적 서술 경향 연구

This paper interprets the social and cultural significance of the “landscape” in North Korea by exploring the object and context of the text referring to the “landscape” in North Korean literature. To this end, the paper first classified the objects describing “landscapes” in serial publications and newspaper articles by types and grouped them according to trend. As a result, the social and cultural significance of the "landscape" in North Korea can be divided among “Projection Object of Orthodoxy", "Visuality extended to the City" and "Visible Socialist-Fairyland". First, in an article about Baekdusan (Mt. Baekdu), “landscape” was used as a medium to prove the legitimacy of the successor. Next, in the Kim Jong-Un regime, “landscape” was used as a word to describe the visual interactions by human economic activities. Finally, as a way to visualize the achievements in the landscape sector, a term for ranking landscapes such as “Socialist-Fairyland” was adopted during Kim Jong-Un

중국에서 북한문학 소개와 특징－1959년부터 1990년까지 『世界文学』을 중심으로

본고는 1959년부터 1990년까지 한정하여 중국어로 소개된 북한문학의 소개 양상과 특징에 대해서 언급하고자 한다. 잡지 『世界文学』은 1953년부터 출간된 『译文』을 전신으로 하며 현재까지 출판되면서 외국문학을 다루고 있다. 하지만 오랜 역사와는 달리 『世界文学』에 대한 선행연구는 3편뿐이고 이 선행연구도 북한문학에 중점을 둔 것이 아니었다. 그러므로 본고는 『世界文学』을 중심으로 중국어로 진행된 북한문학의 소개 양상과 그 특징을 살펴보았다. 제1장에서는 『世界文学』에 대한 간단한 소개와 선행연구에서 나타난 문제의식에 대해 언급하였다. 제2장에서는 『世界文学』 잡지에 실린 북한문학에 대해 소개한 글들을 문화대혁명 전인 1959년부터 1966년과 문화대혁명 후인 1977년부터 1990년으로 나누어 열거하면서 잡지에 북한문학이 소개되는 양상, 특징과 중국 문학인들이 북한문학에 대한 수용 양상의 특징도 고찰하였다. 그리고 마지막으로 부동한 시기, 북한문학을 소개하는 과정에서 나타난 차이점에 대해서도 고찰하였다. 제3장은 부동한 시기에 나타난 북한문학을 소개하는 차이점이 나타난 원인에 대해 논술하였다. 그 결과 문화대혁명을 분기점으로 북한문학에 대한 중국 문학인들의 반응은 국가의 외교관계와 정책을 근거로 변화하던 모습으로부터 문학성을 중점으로 북한문학을 받아드리는 수용 양상으로 변화하였다는 점을 도출할 수 있었다. 이러한 변화가 나타나게 된 원인으로 발행기관, 국가 정책과 중국 문학계의 내부적인 요구로 정리하였다.

개혁의 맹점(盲點)과 도덕적 공동체의 부재(不在) - 해방기 북한 문학의 토지개혁 형상화를 중심으로 -

개혁의 맹점(盲點)과 도덕적 공동체의 부재(不在) - 해방기 북한 문학의 토지개혁 형상화를 중심으로 -

Towards Understanding Tuberculosis-Related Issues in North Korea: A Narrative Review of North Korean Literature.

BackgroundNorth Korea is one of the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB burdened. To understand the medical issues and research trends associated with TB in North Korea, we performed a comprehensive review of articles related to clinical and laboratory research on TB published in North Korean medical journals.MethodsWe reviewed all types of TB-related articles published in nine North Korean medical journals (Yebang ŭihak: Preventive medicine; Koryo ŭihak: Korea Medicine; Chosŏn ŭihak: Chosun Medicine; Naekwa: Internal Medicine; Soa, sanbuinkwa: Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology, Surgery; Ŭihak: Medicine; Kich’o ŭihak: Basic Medicine; and Chosŏn yakhak: Chosun Pharmacy). We classified the articles according to the type and field of study and analyzed the data qualitatively to gain insights.ResultsWe reviewed 106 articles (one- or two-page length) written in Korean, including reviews (n=43), original articles (n=52), and case reports (n=8). They were classified as follows: articles on diagnosis (n=52, 49%) and treatment (n=39, 37%). None of the studies investigated the commercialized molecular diagnosis systems such as Xpert MTB/RIF. Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course was reported as the basic treatment approach. Furthermore, six studies used Korean traditional medicines for treating TB, with one of them containing snake venom.ConclusionThe articles were not sufficiently detailed. Original articles on the treatment of multi-drug resistant TB were not found, and those on latent tuberculosis infection and nontuberculous mycobacteria were limited. To understand the current medical issues associated with TB in North Korea, articles from these nine journals were not sufficient.

북한 「경제연구」로 분석한 경제정책 변화: 텍스트 마이닝 접근법 (Economic Policy Changes in North Korea: A Text Mining Approach to Economic Research)

Korean Abstract: 본고에서는 텍스트 마이닝 등 인공지능 분석 기법을 활용하여 북한 학술지 「경제연구」의 제목에서 유추할 수 있는 북한 경제정책 변화를 분석해 보았다. 「경제연구」에 수록된 논문을 김일성, 김정일, 김정은 시기로 구분하여, 각 통치자별 경제정책의 특징을 일관성과 변화 관점에서 추적하였다. 통치자의 정책적 관심사를 반영한다고 볼 수 있는 「경제연구」에 게재된 논문에 대한 심층 분석 결과는 김일성, 김정일, 김정은으로 이어지는 통치자 관점에서 경제정책의 핵심적인 방향과 당면 과제의 변화를 잘 포착하고 있다. 분석 결과, ‘주체의 경제이론’에 기반한 ‘사회주의 경제강국건설’을 위한 ‘경제사업’에 대한 ‘국가의 전략적 관리’는 일관되게 강조되는 원칙으로 고수하면서도, 대내외 환경변화에 대응한 차별화된 정책 방향의 변화도 관찰되었다. 또한 통치자 시기별로 논문 주제의 분포가 크게 다르게 나타나며 주제의 범위나 방향도 최고통치자에 따라 많은 차이가 나타났다. 「경제연구」등 북한 문헌에 대한 연구는 북한 내부에서 일어나고 있는 정책의 변화를 잘 반영하고 있으므로 대북정책 수립에 기여할 것으로 기대된다. English Abstract: This paper analyzes changes in North Korea’s economic policy according to the North Korean journal, Economic Research, through various analysis techniques of text mining. The paper included in Economic Research is divided into periods according to ruler－Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, and tracks the consistency of and changes in each ruler’s economic policies. The analysis showed a change in policy direction that was differentiated in response to changes in the internal and external environments while adhering to the principle of consistent emphasis on national strategic management for the “socialist economic construction of a powerful country” based on the economic theory of Juche. The in-depth analysis of the paper published in Economic Research, which reflects the policy interests of the rulers, captures changes in the core direction and challenges of economic policy from the perspective of rulers. The number and the variety of the thesis topics is more obvious in Kim Jong-un compared to the former highest rulers. The study of North Korean literature, including Economic Research, is expected to contribute to the establishment of North Korea’s policy as it reflects the change in policy taking place inside the country.

The Prosody of Working and the Narrative of Martyrdom: Daily Life and Death in North Korean Literature during the Great Famine and the Early Military-First Age (1994–2002)

The government of Kim Jong Il (Kim Chŏngil) modified the meaning and purpose of during the North Korean famine and the early Military-First period (1994–2002). During the economic recession after the Soviet bloc collapsed, the North Korean government was incapable of providing material rewards to workers. Thus, the state attempted to transform labor into a spiritual rather than material practice. Despite the shortage of material resources and energy, the regime had to make the workers stay in their workplaces to maintain social stability. At that time, North Korean fiction often described people who worked for spiritual enlightenment rather than for material gain. In the novel and historical prose of this period, protagonists work not for their livelihoods, but for their honorable death; they voluntarily martyred themselves for their country, party, and leader Kim Jong Il. This study explores Song Sangwŏn’s Ch’onggŏm ŭl tŭlgo (Taking up bayonets) (2002) to examine how North Koreans worked, lived, and died at the turn of the twentieth century.

한국전쟁기 남북한 문학담론 기원 연구

한국전쟁기 남북한 문학담론 기원 연구

북한 문학교육을 통한 문학교육론의 투시와 성찰－ 북한의 2013 개정 교육과정 및 교과서를 중심으로 －

북한 문학교육을 통한 문학교육론의 투시와 성찰－ 북한의 2013 개정 교육과정 및 교과서를 중심으로 －