Round Table Discussion: Third World Art’s Reception and Mission

Abstract This is a round-table discussion among Sung Wan-kyung, a leading critic of the leftist art movement, Jung Jichang, a scholar of German literature and theater, and art critic Shim Gwanghyun. It was part of a special event that the monthly art magazine Gana Art organized in order to examine “the art of the third world.” Especially for the artists and critics in the Minjung misul (people’s art) movement, the idea of Korea as a third world nation was crucial in the discourse of the socio-politically unique condition of Korea in the mid-twentieth century. The participants share a common concern about “postmodernism,” as a Western oriented theory and phenomenon, that could possibly eliminate such politically specific principles and historically unique cultures.