Kim Uchang is a literary critic and scholar of English literature. Born in Hampyeong, South Jeolla Province, in 1937, he graduated from the Department of English Language and Literature at Seoul National University. He debuted in 1965 by publishing the critical essay The Example of T.S. Eliot in the magazine Cheongmaek. He received his PhD from Harvard University for his dissertation on the history of American civilization. Kim was a professor of English Literature at Seoul National University and Korea University, and the dean of Korea University Graduate School. Currently, he is professor emeritus at Korea University. He is the author of Poets in the Poor Age, The Complete Works of Kim Uchang (5 volumes), The Study of Aesthetic Rationality, The World of Politics and Life, and Landscape and Mind. He has also published a number of translations, including Mimesis, and many papers.
1. Life
Kim Uchang was born in Hampyeong County, South Korea in 1937. He graduated Seoul National University in 1958 with a degree in English literature, and earned his doctoral degree at Harvard University in 1975. He taught English literature at Seoul National University from 1963 to 1974 and at Korea University from 1974 to 2003. He holds an endowed chair at Ewha Womans University.
2. Writing
Kim Uchang’s criticisms focus on how people can reclaim their humanity in a modern capitalist society. He defines “modern era” as the age in which people lose their humanity and human rationality is suppressed, undermined, and turned into a tool, due to the separation of individual agency from the operation of society. According to Kim, quality literature can be produced when society and the individual, or universality and individuality, merges dialectically. He argues that literature can help overcome the divide or discord between society and the individual. He views literature as a bridge between the two that can restore humanity.
Kim thus judges a literary work based on how successfully it brings together society and the individual. He uses the concept “specific universality” as his judging criteria and argues that specific universality can be achieved through “aesthetic rationality.” This is why Kim often emphasizes the universality of rationality. Universality derives from the ability to impartially observe life and reality. Having a universal perspective based on flexible and holistic rationality is far from making judgments mechanically. A person’s awareness of their potential for universality is what saves them from reality and connects them to it. Kim sees rationality as “the best means to perceive the marvels of the physical world or lifeworld.”
Reference
[김호기의 ‘우리 시대 사상의 풍경’] (6)인문주의, 인간과 삶에 대한 질문 : 이어령과 김우창, 경향신문, 2017.7.28.에 확인
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201312012145475&code=210100
문학과지성사 홈페이지, 2017.7.28.에 확인http://moonji.com/bookauth/1469/
한국현대문학대사전, 2017.7.28.에 확인http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=333302&cid=41708&categoryId=41737
Digital Library of Korean Literature
http://library.klti.or.kr/node/31534
KLN [Kim Uchang]
http://koreanliteraturenow.com/content/kim-uchang
Seok-ju Jang, 나는 문학이다 (Namu Iyagi, 2009)
