러시아의 K-문학, 한류 문학과 ‘상상되는’ 한국

초록

This paper explores the current status of the reception of K-literature in Russia in the wake of Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024 and of Juhae Kim’s award in the Foreign Literature category of Yasnaya Polyna for her work. The Korean Wave, a cultural juggernaut which began with dramas, movies and K-pop, which has widened to webtoons, web novels, and various genres of Korean literature, has spread worldwide, with Russia being no exception. In this article, we study the reception of Korean literature in Russia since the 1990 establishment of diplomatic relationship between South Korea and Russia up to through the mid-2010s, and analyze the current state of interest in Korean literature among Russian publishers and readers, which entered a new phase with Han Kang’s winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. Korean literature, which was previously enjoyed in Russia only by a select group of experts and a small number of readers, is now being accepted as K-literature for the general public due to the influence of the Korean Wave. Korean bestsellers are being quickly translated into Russian, and “healing novels”, which emerged as bestsellers in Korea after 2020, became a new phenomenon and trend in Russia in 2024. However, if Korean literature is consumed as K-literature within the fandom culture of the Korean Wave and only creates an ‘imagined’ Korea, the emphasis should be placed on “K” rather than “literature”. In this regard, it is necessary to conduct more in-depth research and reflection on how the boom in translated Korean “healing novels” and the popularity of Korean literature will develop among the Russian public, and how the “literature” of K-literature should be positioned in the Russian literary field.

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