The purpose of this study is verifying the reception of Franz Kafka, one of the most outstanding writer of existentialism in 20th century, into Modern Korean literature.
Verifying the reception of Franz Kafka by the methodology of comparative literature for examining the present position of Modern Korean literature is essential. Most of the studies for this topic are concerned about the process of translating and introducing his works and interpreting his literary thought in philosophical point of view in Korea. In this study, I focused to the standing point of the addresser instead of addressee for overcome the problem that the studies on the subject take the addressee's viewpoint such as introduction and reception of the existentialism literature including Kafka. I had traced the life of the writer, identified the process of making his philosophical thought and examined his position in the 20th century European literature.
Searching the source and chasing the addresser are fundamental and essential in comparative literary study. At my staying in Prague, I had compared and contrasted the translation with the original text of Kafka which collected before leaving from Korea. Also, I had identified the influence and importance of Franz Kafka in Modern Czech literature and the trend in creative writing of his successors by visiting the historical places where Kafka lived and interviewed with Czech scholars.
Professors of Charles University in Prague were very cooperative for my study and intimated their intention to take charge of the role as a moderator in between me and Czech scholars. I reviewed the tendency of the Modern Czech literature and identified the concern and response of the readers and critics of Franz Kafka in the country.
In this study I have reviewed some literary works which directly reflected Franz Kafka in modern Korean poetry.
There are poems that recited the name of Kafka or the image of him. O Kyu-won, Lee Keon-chung, Chang Seok-ju and Choi Dong-ho wrote the poems which used the name of the writer or main character of his works in their poems.
The poem "Franz Kafka" by O Kyu-won is a postmodernism poetry satirized the fetishism society. Style of the poem is unique. It contains the menu of a cafe which set prices of wellknown thinkers, philosophers and writers as "Charles Baudlaire 800 won, Carl Sandburg 800 Won, Franz Kafka 800 won, Gaston Bashulare 1200 won etc...". In this poem, the poet self-ridiculously criticizes the appearance of modern life in extreme commercialism and fetishism by the style.
The poem, "An Earnest Poet" by Lee Keon-chung deals with the solidarity and self-conflict which is the characteristic theme of Kafka. The persona in it, the clown in circus, hero of the short story of Kafka: "The fasting clown", is a professional man of fasting, who dead by plunging in the performance with dreadful zest. The hero in this poem is a metaphor of the poet himself who fight mentally at the risk of his life even though nobody knows what he did. The poem is a serious confession of the poet's self-consciousness.
On the other hand, the poem "The hope is like 'K' in Kafka" is one of the typical lyric poetry. In this poem, the poet describes that the desperation comes "like a non moveable woman in the book of paintings of Munk", and "K in Kafka". By these expressions, the readers could learn that the poet talks about the desperation instead of hope.
Finaly, there are some poems motivated from main characters of Kafka in Flame buprestid, the collection of poems by Choi Dong-ho.
I have discovered the influence of Kafka into Korean literature in tiis study by analyzing these works which can reveal the reception of mod