비완결의 식민주의, 진행형의 민족주의, 가능성으로서의 사회주의: 하정일의 연구방법과 이념을 중심으로

초록

This study examines the epistemological and aesthetic status of “socialism” in the critical writings of Ha Jeong-il. Tracing the trajectory of his thought from the theory of national literature to the discourse of postcolonialism, it analyzes how the critique of modernity and the imagination of liberation were reconfigured through a socialist mode of thinking. For Ha, national literature was not a representation of fixed national identity but a critical site for recognizing and interrogating the intertwined structures of colonialism and capitalism that defined Korean modernity. In his early works, he actively engaged with the epistemology of socialist realism, yet reinterpreted it not as a rigid ideological framework but as an aesthetic form that renders visible the complexity of reality. This perspective was later articulated through the concept of “the particularization of the universal,” which repositions the nation as a historical practice mediating between universality and particularity. However, Ha also recognized the limitations of his national literature theory—its inability to envision a perspective “beyond the nation”—and sought to fill that gap by re-engaging socialism. His later concept of the “socialist imagination” reveals his attempt to transform socialism from a doctrinal ideology into a mode of aesthetic thought. By emphasizing literature’s capacity to imagine ways of life beyond the modern order of property and production, he illuminated a literary endeavor that aspires not merely to critique reality but to envision other possible forms of existence. From this perspective, Ha’s understanding of socialism signifies an epistemological attempt to transform the very mode of thinking about modernity itself.

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