Under the Soviet guidance: The DPRK Literary Criticism in 1946-1955

(English) The first phase of North Korean literature, dated between 1946 and 1955, can be defined by the strong Soviet oversight and influence. As the DPRK was created, its cultural sphere was shaped following the example of the Soviet Union. A bureaucratic structure that controlled the cultural industry was built and the role of authors and literary critics was to serve the state. This thesis focuses on this period of North Korean literary history, specifically assessing the role of and tendencies of literary criticism. It explains the nature of North Korean literary criticism during this time as political, tying it into factional struggles happening in the political and cultural sphere. In this thesis I firstly present the literary and historical context which shaped North Korean literature, taking a look at major influences on the development of modern literature and specifically leftist literature in colonial Korea as well as attempting to define socialist realism. In the second part I describe the formal structures emerging on the cultural scene of the newly formed DPRK that seek to control cultural production, as well as describing what the requirements for new socialist literature were. I also touch on the topic of factional struggle and the role of literary criticism as political struggle....