POSTMODERNISM IN KOREAN LITERATURE: HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This article examines the formation of postmodernism in Korean literature, its major stages of development, and its key aesthetic and ideological features. The study argues that postmodernism emerged as a critical response to traditional national narratives and political realism and was closely intertwined with the historical traumas of Korean society, as well as with processes of urbanization, democratization, and globalization. The article offers a systematic overview of the evolution of postmodern literary practices, tracing their development from early experimental endeavors of the 1960s–1970s to their consolidation as an independent literary and aesthetic movement in the 1980s–1990s. Drawing on the works of Yi Sang, Pak Tae-won, Choi Yun, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kim Young-ha, and Han Kang, the study analyzes such defining characteristics of postmodernism as fragmentation, metafiction, intertextuality, subjective narration, hybrid forms, and an emphasis on personal and marginal experiences. Particular attention is paid to the introduction of the term “postmodernism” into Korean literary scholarship, debates concerning its relationship with modernism, and the interpretation of Western theoretical frameworks (J.-F. Lyotard, F. Jameson) within the national context. In conclusion, Korean postmodern literature is assessed as a multilayered cultural phenomenon that synthesizes national historical experience with global aesthetic currents and reveals the complexity of individual identity and social consciousness