The Clarté Movement in Japan and Korea, 1919-1925.

Abstract

The Clarté movement was an international writers’ association founded in France after the Great War, which had as its goal the rallying of the intellectual elite of the world in order to prevent further war. The movement had branches in countries from Western Europe to East Asia. Scholars have examined the transfer of the movement to and within East Asia, but have not considered the underlying ideological mechanisms that enabled this transfer. This dissertation sets out to identify these mechanisms, referred to collectively throughout as the Clarté problematic. Borrowing Louis Althusser’s concept of the problematic, the study approaches Clarté as a distinct ideological phenomenon, separate from the movements for which it served as support. Chapter One considers the origins of the Clarté movement in Europe, with a discussion of its founder Henri Barbusse, his experiences in the Great War, and his attempts to create an international of intellectuals. Chapter Two turns to Komaki Ōmi, the founder of Tane maku hito, and highlights his association with Barbusse and efforts to link European anti-war movements with those in Japan. Chapter Three centers on the three-year existence of Tane maku hito. The journal’s efforts at social criticism and action are examined, concerns highlighted in its subtitle, hihan to kōdō; both fiction and criticism are considered. Chapter Four discusses the movement in Korea, specifically Kim Ki-jin’s efforts to replicate Tane maku hito with the journal Kaebyŏk. Chapter Five examines how the Clarté movement (and problematic) fell victim to the international conjuncture, being cast as an oppositional ideology before giving way to Marxism- Leninism. iv In addition to the construction of the “Clarté problematic” as a distinct object of study, the dissertation engages a period of intellectual and literary development of leftist literature that has not received as much attention as the later period of proletarian literature proper. Tane maku hito is traditionally placed at the fount of proletarian literature, but this study scrutinizes this assumption of theoretical continuity, arguing that what the journal was attempting to do was to propagate the Clarté movement, not found the new genre for which it is credited.