When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea

301 Pages·2014·11.215 MB·English

by  Janet Poole

0.74318”

praise for p janet poole
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When the Future Disappears
janet poole teaches Korean o taking a panoramic view of
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literature and cultural history at “In this world-class piece of scholarship and conceptual thinking, e Korea’s dynamic literary production
the University of Toronto. She has in the final decade of Japanese rule,
Janet Poole shows how Korean poets, philosophers, and essayists in the
translated the works of many writers When the Future Disappears locates the
colonial period struggled with the notion of a disappearing future with no change
from colonial Korea, including imprint of a new temporal sense in
in sight. Through the local Korean case she works through the broader question of the
Yi T’aejun’s Eastern Sentiments. complex temporality of the late colonial period and shows how culture bears the imprint of t w Korean modernism: the impression
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this sense of time in its very form.” e of time interrupted, with no promise
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m of a future. As colonial subjects of
alan tansman, University of California, Berkeley o e
d n an empire headed toward total war,
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“An indispensable addition to the existing studies on Japanese modernism, Japanese imperialism and its r Korean writers in this global fascist
politics and culture, European modernism, and the growing body of scholarly works on colonial Korea.” n t moment produced some of the most
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jin-kyung lee, University of California, San Diego t h sophisticated writings of twentieth-

im e century modernism.

“Poole’s brilliantly executed reading of late colonial Korean modernism and fascism exceeds the constraints a
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of mere exceptionality and locality to instantiate colonial Korea’s entry into a global modernity that in u Yi T’aejun, Ch’oe Myŏngik, Im Hwa,
everywhere inflected the encounter with capitalism’s production of temporal unevenness through ceaseless a t Sŏ Insik, Ch’oe Chaesŏ, Pak T’aewŏn,
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efforts to use the past to reinforce a present driven by the pursuit of the new. Poole’s decision to see the io u Kim Namch’ŏn, and O Changhwan,
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colonial experience through the prism of the modernist imaginary makes her book a singularly original and r among other Korean writers, lived
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valuable contribution to both our understanding of Korea and the wider world of imperial violence.” n e through a rare colonial history in which

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harry harootunian, Columbia University a d their vernacular language was first
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e i inducted into the modern, only to be
“No other English-language academic study of Korean literature more elegantly combines close s
c shut out again through the violence of
readings of selected texts with salient readings of their historical and cultural contexts. o a
l state power. The colonial suppression
When the Future Disappears marvelously reanimates aesthetic constellations that o p w h e n
n of Korean-language publications was
emerged at the intersection of colonialism, fascism, and modernism.” i p
a an effort to mobilize toward war, and it
jongyon hwang, Dongguk University l e t h e f u t u r e forced Korean writers to face the loss
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o of their letters and devise new, creative
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Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute,
e forms of expression. Their remarkable
Columbia University a s
struggle reflects the stark foreclosure
jacket image:
at the heart of the modern colonial
yi sang, pak t’aewŏn, and kim sowoon the modernist
during changmoonsa publishing era experience. Straddling cultural,
columbia university press
imagination in intellectual, and literary history, this
new york
book & jacket design:
chang jae lee cup.columbia.edu late colonial book maps the different strategies,
including abstraction, irony, paradox,
printed in the u.s.a. c korea
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W H E N
T H E F U T U R E
D I S A P P E A R S
Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute,
Columbia University
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Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia
University were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results
of signifi cant new research on modern and contemporary East Asia.
columbia university press New York
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JANET POOLE
W H E N
T H E F U T U R E
DISAPPEARS

THE MODERNIST

IMAGINATION IN

LATE COLONIAL
KOREA
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columbia university press
publishers since 1893
new york chichester, west sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
This publication is made possible with the grant support provided by the
Korea Foundation and help from the Centre for the Study of Korea, University of Toronto.
Publication of this book has been supported by the Sunshik Min Endowment for the
Advancement of Korean Literature at the Korea Institute, Harvard University.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Poole, Janet, author.
When the future disappears : the modernist imagination in late colonial
Korea / Janet Poole.
pages cm — (Studies of the Weatherhead Institute, Columbia University)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-231-16518-1 (cloth : acid-free-paper) — isbn 978-0-231-53855-8 (e-book)
1. Korean literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Modernism
(Literature)—Korea. 3. Colonialism in literature. 4. Postcolonialism in
literature. 5. Language and languages in literature. I. Title.
pl957.5.m63p66 2015
895.7'09112—dc23
2014009491

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
jacket image: yi sang, pak t’aewŏn, and kim sowoon
during changmoonsa publishing era
book & jacket design: chang jae lee
R eferences to Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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People say that modernity is a transformative
period in history. “Transformative period” means
literally one huge crisis. It is a time when the common
sense, morals, traditions, and customs that had directed
our daily lives collapse as all the passions that create the
new and the strange bear down upon us in confusion.
Sŏ Insik, “Themes of Modernity,” 1939
Exhausted by refl ection, my so-called conscience and
reason have long since been paralyzed, and I fl oat on
a lake of time.
Ch’oe Myŏngik, “Patterns of the Heart,” 1939

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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction : The Disappearing Future of Colonial Fascism 1
1. The Unruly Detail of Late Colonialism 17
2. The Sociology of Colonial Nostalgia 51
3 . A Private Orient 85
4 . Peri-urban Dreams 115
5. Imperialization, or the Resolution of Crisis 149
6 . Taking Possession of the Emperor’s Language 177
Epilogue: Aft erlives 201
Notes 209
Selected Bibliography 249
Index 269
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As I was writing this book there were moments
when I felt as if I had created my own disappearing future, so stubbornly did
the book refuse to be fi nished. Now that I can fi nally experience something
close to the sense of an ending, I thank everyone who made the writing of
this book possible, and sometimes even pleasurable. Yi T’aejun liked to be-
lieve that writing blooms from the individual alone, and sitting at the key-
board day aft er day can feel like a lonely enterprise to be sure. But I appreciate
now more than ever how utterly mistaken he was.
Although this is not my dissertation, some of the research and questions
I explore here stem from my work in graduate school. I thank my exem-
plary committee members for their help and support: Paul Anderer, Charles
Armstrong, Harry Harootunian, Hwang Jongyon, and Tomi Suzuki. Harry
Harootunian has been nothing short of an inspiration with his endless cu-
riosity, enthusiasm, and encouragement. But, more than that, his work on
interwar modernism in Japan off ered me both a guide and a challenge to
map the constellations of modernism in colonial Korea. Hwang Jongyon has
always patiently answered all manner of questions, both large and small. I
consider myself extremely lucky to have met him so many years ago. Carol
Gluck taught one of the fi rst seminars I attended at Columbia and made me
realize for the fi rst time that I could be a writer. She has continued to support
me in the best ways possible ever since.
During a long period in Seoul I received more help than I ever deserved. In
particular I thank all the members of Kim Chul’s fascism seminar: Baek Moon
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