ISSN : 1229-4632
I want to make a study on the characteristic of the poem describing the fatal life of Uncho who lived as a Gi-nyeo, a concubine and a poetess in the late period of Chosun dynasty. Uncho had to live her whole life as a member of the lower classes. Her destined encounter with Mr. Yeon Chun and the friendship with famous noble poets, such as Kyeong San, Keum Won, Juk Seo, and Kyeong Chun, through Samho-Jung, the poetry association became an opportunity to expand the world of her poetry. Uncho learned from her uncle Ilhwa-Dang. She got married to Mr. Yeon Chun, who was fifty years older than her. Through this marriage she enlarged the world of her poetry, but on the other hand she also keenly realized her limits. Uncho had a correct understanding of herself through the friendship with the men of noble birth, and it made her feel more alienated. After Yeon Chun's death, she concentrated more on writing poetry with her friend Kyeong San and the poetry association, Samho-Jung. But looking behind her husband, she left <Cheungsi> poetry as a self-portrait and finished her short life. The world of her poetry were as follows; Looks of Gi-nyeo appeared in the <Sajeol-Jung> poetry, <Jahwang> poetry satisfying herself. But dissatisfaction of her poetic talent was discovered in the <Jajo> poetry. Especially she expressed her sense of shame about the world of her poetry by comparing with Mrs. Hwa ye from China, and Huh nan seol-Heon from Chosun. "Separated feeling from object" : She gave a massage to her friends Gi-nyeo to be cautious in self-conceit. Uncho spent her time with friends of the poetry association, Samho-Jung, and was immersed in consciousness of kind. On the other hand, she led a lonely and neglected life mentioning consciousness of separation. In her poet given to Kyeong San, she concluded that her life was not free comparing herself to "fish in the fish bowl". She made <Cheungsi> poetry in the nihilism and passed away. To conclude, Uncho is the regrettable woman of the late period of Chosun dynasty who had lived unhappy double life.
In this article, I examined Joen Hye-lin's life and literature, focusing on their relation of the literary system of Korea and the unique cultural site that her position as a translator placed in. Joen has excluded from the boundary of the 'stern' Korean literary history, for she wrote mainly essay seen as a marginal genre, or translated foreign literary works, in addition her abnormal biography as intellectual woman had mythologized and enjoyed as a girlish taste. System like 'Shinchoon Munyae' that literary men made their debut got utilized as a gate of rising the world to compensate for poverty and desolation postwar. In this male central literary world of Korea in the 1950's~60's, she was a heterogeneous being who was a bourgeois woman and a liberalist experiencing directly the Western culture, very different from 'a careful literary woman.' She had convicted distance of 'the Western culture' and Korean one and made their hierarchy, through translating the western literature, which was the reason she couldn't root in the society and the literary world of Korea. As it were, her spiritualism and stoicism, which she experienced and learned from the western literature, made her be look down upon Korean society and literary world controled by philistinism. In her thoughts, 'the European' and 'the American' was matched with each spiritualism and materialism, and only the former was represented as pure and mythologized image of 'the Western.' This Western image evoked mass echo. However, identifying with the Western essentialized, she tried to resist against the philistine negativity in realities which, in conclusion. made her life and literature place in the outside of concrete realities.
During the Lee dynasty, because of fact that leaving written forms of literal works to the public is considered as a negative conception among men as well as women, it is quite rare to find a collection of women writers' works so that there is one or two existing. Through analyzing literal works done by Kang, Jung-il-dang, this study aims to closely examine possible reasons how some collections of women writers' works were able to be published during the second period of Lee dynasty where the theory of Sung-Confucianism was in critical rigidity. Ironically, it is obtained by women as they regularly start studying Sung-Confucianism in accordance with the strong perception on the equal rights for both sexes. What the woman writer Kang, Jung-il-dang felt negatively against elements of gender discrimination in Lee Dynasty was discrimination on education. Therefore, she pointed out the unreasonableness of the fact that women had to be excluded from being educated and she then, demanded its adjustment while studying Sung-Confucianism. Some remarkable literal characteristics of the study of Jae Do Ron in her works elicited positive reputation about women literature from men, and they led the wider flow of publishment of a series of work-collections done by women writers. Consequently, although it is not always correspondent the process of women's self-consciousness to the process of de-Confucianism, through these facts, senses of self-conscious and rights of Yang-Ban women should possibly be taken into consideration as part of inherent motivation for the women-modernization movement based on the conception of equality for both sexes.
Park Hyun-sook is 1st generation female playwriter appeared after the Korean War. The advent of female playwriter in late 1950s was so late whereas the origin of modern Korean literature and drama history was placed in 1900s. Such a late advent of female playwriter shows the exclusion to the women in the field of play writing. The major interest of this paper is that the time of advent of female playwriter was, ironically, same to that of nation. In this point of view, the relations between female subject and nation might be a issue in another aspect different from colonialism. Nowadays, in feminism, various discussions on the relations between nation and women were proposed, therefore this relations focused in 1st generation female playwriter were explored in this paper. Among them, Park Hyun-sook identified positively herself to nation since she was a North Korean refugee and a woman. She was lack of both things, not a native South Korean and, what is more, not a man. For this circumstances she had to defend herself and survive. The drama of her early days were mainly melodrama and in her melodrama heroine was characterized by high morality on the stage. Generally melodrama has a dichotomy structure of good and bad, and has a ending of victory of good man. This is the very effective way of showing off her inner justice. And then Park Hyun-sook got a firm position in the Korean literary circles and cultural organization after the Korean War. In spite of such a success, she was not a successful writer because secular success couldn't guarantee the success as a writer. By the internalizing nationalism in her mind she got a reputation but she lost the historical vision which had to be held strongly as a writer.
이 논문은 한국의 여성시인들 가운데 홍윤숙, 김후란, 유안진의 작품을 종교적인 차원에서 논의하는 데에 초점을 맞추어 논지를 집약하였다. 이 세 시인들은 가톨릭 신앙의 깊은 경지에 도달했을 때 얻게 되는 감동적 순간의 극치를 보여주고 있으며 독자로 하여금 이것을 간접 체험하게 함으로써 영혼의 정화를 느끼게 하고 독자들의 신앙 유무와 무관하게 시공을 초월하여 공감대를 형성하는 이유를 시로써 해명해 주기도 한다. 인간의 가장 중요한 경험에 속하는 신앙생활 특히 교회를 통한 종교생활은 교리에 비추어 자아성찰을 꾀하게 하고 이것을 문학이 반영하게 되어 있다. 그런 점에서 위의 여성시인들은 시로써 생활과 가톨릭 신앙과 적극적인 조화를 이루어가는 가톨릭적 삶과 죽음을 제시하고 있다. 특히 주목되는 점은 이들의 시가 가톨릭 예술이 추구하는 근본적인 세계 즉 영원 초월적인 실재 내용을 가시적 예술형식으로 표현하는 데에 성과를 거두고 있다는 점이다. 그래서 이들의 시는 독자 위에 있는 시로서 의미가 있다. 독자 위에 있는 시는 일상 삶으로부터 초월해 있는 문제들에 관심을 갖는 시로서 삶의 존재 근거, 삶이 지향해야 될 방향, 어떤 절대 신념 등을 추구하는 시이기 때문에 가톨릭적 시가 추구하는 것과 맥락을 같이 한다. 따라서 이들의 시는 보다 본원적이고 이념적인 차원에 다다르려고 하므로 존재 탐구 내지 형이상학을 지향하는 시가 된다. 그런데 시에 종교적인 사상과 깊이를 담으려 할 때 흔히 시는 관념시에 머물게 될 가능성을 배제할 수 없는데, 이들은 그들 특유의 표현기법을 통해 이러한 한계를 극복한 것으로 보인다. 이들이 쓴 가톨릭 시는 사상의 깊이를 확보하고 있고 자신들의 내면세계를 기도문의 형식을 빌어 솔직히 토로하고 있을 뿐만 아니라 가톨릭적 소재를 택함으로써 소재의 범위를 확대했다는 측면에서 한국 여성시의 차원을 한 단계 높은 차원으로 끌어올리는 데 성공하고 있다.
Kim, kirim was a poet, critic, novelist, dramatist and essayist who tried not only to evaluate but surmount Korean literature, receiving western literary theory. He was not a formalist or a technician but he was interested in language and its expression. Being educated, women in 1930s had a kind of modernistic consciousness than former women because they could read the ladies' magazines and contact with western culture. Nevertheless, they were a kind of minorities compared with men. It was because that Confucian ideas and restraints of the times were so strong. About 1930s, Japan, considering Chosun as their food suppliers as well as market for their products, began to exploit Chosun. It results in the failure of accomplishing women's subjective life in Chosun. By 1940s, Kim, kirim's understanding of women couldn't extend since he could no longer believe in the possibility of transforming reality through reasonal principle. In the historical context in which no one could see the future prospect, it was difficult to try to extend his cognition of women.
1930년대 초반부터 40년대 초반까지 10년여를 간도 용정에 체류한 경력을 가진 강경애는 일생 동안 발표한 21편의 소설 작품 중 12편을 간도체험에서 취재하고 있다. 본고에서는 강경애의 간도체험 소설을 4부분으로 나누어 이민문학적인, 혹은 조선족 문학적인 측면에서 살펴보았다. 「채전」이나 「축구전」에서는 작가의 계급이념을 실천적으로 표현하고 있고 「유무」에서도 암시적이기는 하지만 역시 그러한 실천적 의지를 보여주고 있다. 이는 강경애를 카프문학의 동반자 작가로 부르게 된 중요한 단서라 하겠다. 다음 「소금」이나 「모자」에서는 그러한 계급 이념을 주인공의 고달픈 운명을 통해 드러내고 있다. 이어 「그 여자」, 「동정」, 「원고료 이백 원」, 「번뇌」 등 작품에서는 안이에 빠지려는 운동가의 환멸의식을 꼬집으면서 자성과 자기편달을 시도하며 「모자」, 「마약」, 「어둠」, 「검둥이」 등에서는 현실의 암흑상을 적나라하게 드러내면서 동시에 상당 정도 작가의 상실감과 좌절을 표출하고 있기도 한다. 이러한 작품들의 주제성향은 저항적 의지의 표현이라는 차원에서 보면 대체로 하강적 모습을 보이고 있다. 즉 노골적인 계급이념 표현에서 점차 현실비판으로 바뀌다가 결국 짙은 상실감과 좌절의식을 드러내고 있는 것이다. 그러나 초기 작품은 더 말할 것도 없고 말기 작품에 이르기까지도 강경애의 작가의식은 저항과 계급이념으로 일관하고 있음을 우리는 확인할 수가 있다. 이상 살펴본 강경애의 간도체험 소설은 이주민의 삶에서 취재하였음에도 불구하고 이주민의 정체성 문제에 대해서는 특별히 관심을 보이지 않고 있는 듯이 보인다. 그러나 사실은 그렇지가 않다. 강경애는 자기가 몸담고 있는 간도 땅을 혁명과 투쟁의 땅으로 인식하고 있는 것이다. 계급적 이념의 소유자인 강경애에게 이주민의 정체성은 투사로서, 투쟁을 지향하는 사람으로서 존재하였던 것은 아닐까 생각해본다. 즉 안수길처럼 현실에 저항도 하고 더러 타협도 하면서 이주민의 생존을 꾀한 것이 아니라 철저히 현실을 부정하고 지배자와 투쟁함으로써 정체성을 확보 유지할 수 있다고 인식했다는 말이 된다.
The characteristic of Kang Keong-E's later novels is in the re-construction of diaspora as the female's viewpoint. So this thesis intends to look at her later novels, centering on the experience of diaspora and motherhood. First, <The Salt> deals with the cause of emigration and diaspora in association with the woman's experience and her narrative of survival. Bong Yeom's mother in <The Salt> under goes all sorts of hardships like the husband's death, Chinese landowner's sexual violence, bearing, and children's death. And she wakes up to the subject in the class and nation through these hardships. This novel grasps the complex aspects of motherhood in position of lower class woman, and find out the reality which her motherhood can not be protected at the Korean's marginal position, that is Kando emigrant. Kang Keong-E's later novels, <The Salt>, <The Mother and Son>, <The Drug>, <The Underground Village>, shows the 'maternalization of poverty'. Though the Old(pre-modern) women in her novels have the maternal thought, the dissolution of family is the clear reality to them. The motherhood not only shows why the diaspora and emigration are problematic to the women but also presents how they break through or transcend imaginatively the situation of emigration. Also this motherhood has the social meaning, and ensures the reality because of the concrete experience about female body. In <The Anxiety>, <The Sympathy>, the pity and love for Old(pre-modern) woman are presented in the context of the self-reflection of intellectual woman. In conclusion, the two axes, 'experience of diaspora' and 'motherhood of Old woman', which constituting the world of Kang Keong-E's later novels, shows the mutual relationship between the peculiarity of colonial Chosun and the process of subjectivity in lower class woman.
In this paper, I tried to examine a mode of structuring a 'Romantic love' is characteristic in the 1960's woman 's novels through the Han moo sook and Kang shin jae's novels. The main reason that these novels didn't get a good evaluation dues to a suspicion that the novels are in collusion with 'Romantic love' reproduces a patriarchy. But these novel are not captured by the patriarchy passively. In the process of representation the story of love, they show woman's desire which confront and break the man-centric system. Gang shin jae's novel represent beautifully a 'taboo love' that break the Oedfuse authority symbolizing the' Father'. And By turning over the discriminative gender role, they tried to deconstruct fantasy and philistinism of romantic love being organized for man- centric system. Han moo sook's novel show a adaptation to traditional system relatively, but they tried eagerly to represent woman's sexual distress and desire affirmatively. Through the effort they represent the woman's reality living their lives for 'The Other'. Though this paper we can get a conclude that it is not right to criticize the 1960' woman's novel only by discover a romantic love.
This paper is intended to clarify that witness narratives on women in 1920s contribute to "otherize" women. One of the subject matters, which is frequently found in literary works written in 1920s, is that a male character shadows and steals a glance at and witness a female character. As the result of this witness, a female character becomes rated as a negative body. What a male character witnesses is a female character's loose sexual relationship or her exceptional concept of sex. But the problem is that the contents of his witness is not true but reorganized through his sexual fantasy. A male character regards the body of a female character as the body filled with sexual desire. He thinks that her sexual desire is superfluous, if that desire does not belong to him and flows to another man. If a female character continues to refuse him, he concludes that she lacks her sexual desire. By these ratings, a female character rising to be a sexual subject becomes otherized. While the former is exemplified in Mulberry Leaves by Na, Do-Hyang, the latter is exemplified in Dormitory Inspector, B, and Love Letter by Hyun, Jin-Gun. As illustrated in these two novels, the contents of witness is not a modern means of recognition based on some facts. Rather, it is a mechanism invented by a witnessing male character in order to occupy the place of subject. That is, witness is very likely to be an alibi posing as a factual recognition, which can be used in distinguishing the subject.
In the literary studies of Japanese fierce colonizing period, disease does not mean simply a matter of material. It is considered not as a narrative of personal and private experience, but as a meaningful literary discourse. The disease including agony, gloom, weariness, nervous breakdown, and so on, has been discussed as a kind of "disease of metaphor" with a social and historical character. But this discussion has not been founded in the studies of woman character. This article aims to reconsider how and why woman or her body represented compared to man. The woman body, particularly in the 1930s' novel appeared striking features. Above all, neurosis was divided into nervousness and hysteria according to man and woman. The hysteria at that time meant a personal and subjective sentiment such as fret, lack, jealousy, trouble between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The nervousness of man implied to a metaphor of creative motives or social and historical sufferings. The different expressions of neurosis result from man seeing it, who produces discourse and makes woman's trouble only a personal disease. Women writers often pervert their bodies in the situation which man controls language. They represent particularly mother's body perverted. The characteristic experiences of women, for example pregnancy and delivery in the works of Kang Kyung Ae and Baek Syn Ae show that women speak to world by body. The body with speaking the meaning indicates not chora symbolizing the origin of abundance but the abject. The woman's voice is also disguised as hysteria and madness. In the special circumstance of Japanese fierce colonizing, people require the powerful order of father and make woman to be silence. However, absence can't be nothing, original lack. The abject continues to disclose the mother's body, and the woman's voice disguised with hysteria and madness speaks in the crevice, or the strange space of heterogeneity.
This is a systematic study of literary works by women within the Royal Court of the Choson dynasty. There are women of various classes within the Royal Court of the Choson dynasty, such as a queen, a royal concubine, a woman servant, etc. They were concerned with the formation of the women's novel literature within the Royal Court of the Choson dynasty. For example, a queen and a royal concubine were well off so they sought for their time. They spent time reading novels. A court lady and a woman servant read novels while they read for their lord or wrote from novels. From the middle of the 17th century to the early stages of the 20th century, women in the Royal Court of the Choson dynasty kept going to read traditional novels while they started to develop various cultures based on their readings. Also, they interacted with the reading public of the outside world and did much to help literature of Choson dynasty. I looked into their literature and tradition in the historical system. The development of literature in the Choson dynasty is related to women of various classes within the Royal Court. So we must evaluate their contribution properly.
이 논문은 조선조 시대 여성 교육서로 활용된 규훈서(閨訓書) 중에서 선희궁(宣禧宮) 영빈(映嬪) 이씨(李氏)가 쓴 『여범(女範)』을 소개하고, 그 특징적 성격과 차별적 의의를 밝히기 위한 목적으로 쓰여졌다. 조선조 시대 남성 작가들이 쓴 규훈서는 대체로 남성중심적인 가부장제 사회를 확고하게 하는데 필요한 여성적 속성을 가치있는 것으로 부각시키는 여성 교육서로 활용되었다. 한편 여성 작가가 쓴 규훈서는 여성을 남성의 보조자로 규정하고 남성에게 헌신하고 봉사하는 것으로 여성적 속성의 범주를 한정하고 있지 않아서 남성 작가들이 쓴 규훈서와 차이가 있다. 특히 우리나라 여성이 쓴 여성 교육서로서, 영빈 이씨가 쓴 규훈서 『여범』은 여성중심적인 관점에서 사적․공적 영역에서 발휘되는 여성적 속성에 대하여 비교적 주체적인 입장을 견지하고 있어서 특이하다. 이 책은 1책 4권으로 구성되어 있으며, 최상층에서부터 하층에 이르는 여성들의 삶을 다양하게 보여주고 있는 점이 특징적이다. 또한 『여범』은 다른 규훈서에서 이상적 여성으로 제시하고 있는 열녀, 계모, 효부 등이 등장하지만 여성의 뛰어난 능력을 공적 영역에서 발휘하는 것에 특별한 관심을 기울였다는 점이 특징적이다. 「목난녀」의 주인공 목난은 남성들에게만 개방된 공적(忠) 영역이 여성들에게 제한된 문제를 극복하기 위해 남복으로 변장하고 출전한다. 「한냥홍처」의 맹씨녀는 여성이라는 신분 때문에 공적 영역으로 진출할 수 없는 한계를 극복하고, 자신의 뛰어난 능력을 공적 영역에서 발휘하기 위해 배우자 탐색 방법을 사용한다. 「위모송씨」의 송씨는 공적 영역으로 진출할 수 있는 공식적 관문인 교육이 여성에게 배제되었으나, 글 공부를 열심히 해서 자신의 뛰어난 지적 능력을 교육기관에서 발휘한다. 이렇게 『여범』에서 발휘된 여성 영웅성은 직접적 또는 남장이나 대리인 내세우기 등의 우회적 방법으로 표출되고 있다. 그러나 이러한 우회적 방법은 남녀 차별이라는 성차별적 사회 제도에서 여성들이 선택할 수밖에 없었던 일종의 전략적 방편이었다. 이러한 논의는 조선조 시대의 여성 교육서 『여범』에 드러나 있는 여성들의 공적 영역으로의 진출 방식이나 공적 영역에서 발휘되었던 여성적 속성에 대하여 부정적으로 평가함으로써 규훈서 자체의 한계를 논의하는 것에서 벗어나, 개별 규훈서의 실상과 그 존재 의미를 긍정적으로 평가하는데 도움을 줄 것이다.
이 논문은 <소현성록> 여성반동인물의 행위 양상과 그것이 지니는 의미를 탐색하는 것을 목적으로 한다. <소현성록>의 지속적 여성반동인물은 화씨와 여씨이다. 이들은 모두 투기한다는 공통점을 지니고 있다. 화씨는 자신의 투기 때문에 오히려 동렬을 받아들이게 되는 역설적 상황을 빚는 인물이다. 화씨는 석파, 남편과 갈등을 벌이는데 이러한 갈등은 모두 동렬인 석명혜 때문에 비롯되었다. 따라서 석파와의 갈등은 석명혜와의 갈등이 전이된 형태로 볼 수 있다. 늑혼에 의해 소경과 혼인한 여씨는 다양한 방법을 동원해 석명혜와 화씨를 모해한다. 이 때문에 석명혜는 출거되고 화씨는 출거지화의 위기에 몰린다. 여씨가 사용한 결정적인 반동행위의 수법은 상대여성의 정절을 문제 삼는 것이었다. 정절은 조선 시대 여성에게 절대적으로 요구되던 지고의 덕목이라는 점, 그리고 그 때문에 주동인물이 고난을 겪는다는 점에서 여씨의 이야기에는 정절 이데올로기의 경직성이 드러나 있다고 할 수 있다. 결국 여씨의 반동행위는 소경의 깨달음으로 발각이 되고 여씨는 끝내 출거되고 만다. 그런데 반동행위로 인한 남녀주동인물의 고난이 다른 대하소설이나 <사씨남정기> 등의 인물에 비해 상대적으로 심각하지 않은데, 이는 여성독자에게 흥미보다는 교훈을 더 깊게 전달하려는 서술자의 의도로 보인다. 서술자는 화씨와 여씨 등 투기하는 인물을 주요반동인물로 설정함으로써 여성의 투기에 대해 강력한 경계의 목소리를 내고 있다. 여성반동인물의 설정뿐만 아니라 소월영과 같은 여성주동인물의 언술, 길복 모티프의 제시 등 다양한 서사적 장치를 통해 서술자는 투기 금지의 이데올로기를 전파하고 있다. 이러한 설정은 이면적으로 다처제 혹은 처첩제 하에서 질곡을 겪는 여성들의 실상을 적나라하게 드러내는 효과를 거두고 있다는 점에서 의미가 있다. 화씨나 여씨는 당대의 유교 이념을 처음부터 부정하려 해서 부정하는 인물은 아니다. 자신이 처한 환경, 즉 자신 외에도 아내가 여럿인 환경에 따라 자연스럽게 투기의 심성이 발현된 것이다. <소현성록>에는 이처럼 이념의 체화자나 반대자가 선험적으로 설정되어 있지 않다는 특징이 있다. 이는 곧 환경에 따라 인간의 심성이 바뀔 수 있음을 드러내는 것이다. 같은 여성반동인물이라 해도 기득권의 유무 여부에 따라 행위의 방식이 달라진다. 혼인에 관한 한 기득권자인 화씨는 주동인물인 석씨에 대해 직접적인 반동 행위를 하지 않고 다만 원망하는 마음만을 품는 데 반해, 비기득권자인 여씨는 반동 행위를 직접 하고 있는 것이다. 이러한 점에서 기득권자에 비해 비기득권자가 훨씬 심리적 억압을 지닐 수 있음을 알 수 있다. 서술자는 반동인물이 몰려 있는 집안을 상정함으로써 혈통을 중시하는 시각을 보이고 있다. 이는 주동인물 가문이 지니는 배타적 선민의식을 반증하는 장치로서 기득권자의 지배를 영속화하려는 허구적인 이데올로기일 뿐이다. <소현성록>은 반동인물의 양적, 질적인 취약함에도 불구하고 다처제, 혹은 처첩제 하에서 겪어야 했던 여성들의 억압과 질곡을 집약적으로 보여주고 있다. 주변인, 비기득권자인 여성은 그 억압과 질곡에 대해 상이하게 반응했는데 그것을 과감하게 깨뜨리려고 시도했던 인물이 바로 여성반동인물이었던 것이다.
The concept of ‘literary history’ appeared with the rise of modern nations in Europe in the 19th century, so a literary history has meant a ‘national’ literary history so long time. However, we find many different kinds of writing literary history in the late of the 20th century all in the world, which were in pursuit of history and tradition of the marginalized group, such as women, laborers, the African-American, lesbians, and so on. According to academic criticisms like postmodernism in the late of the 20th century, writing literary history means inventing a ‘fiction’. Generally the tradition writing literary history found was regarded as a kind of fabrication. It is a general afunction of historiography that writing literary history of a group exaggerates its past as being a honorable or miserable one. Writing women's literary history would be at the risk of it, too. So then, is it unnecessary or meaningless? I'd like to say, in this essay, writing women's literary history is still not only necessary but also important, in aspect of not only a movement for the emancipation of women but also an academy, a study of national literary history. Writing women's literary history could play an important part of passing a general limit of writing national literary history.