윤이상 음악 서사의 서구 수용과 오리엔탈리즘: 보호받는 타자와 유예된 검증
Orientalism in the Western Reception of Isang Yun:The Protected Other and the Postponement of Critical Scrutiny
This study reexamines the reception of Isang Yun within the Western contemporary music world, critically challenging conventional accounts that interpret it as a simple outcome of cultural exchange or aesthetic expansion. Drawing on the concept of Orientalism proposed by Edward Said, this study analyzes the structural conditions and mechanisms through which non-Western music attains visibility and legitimacy within Western discourse. It argues that Yun’s music and life were constituted within a ‘double narrative’, in which the representation of Eastern thought, mastery of Western avant-garde compositional techniques, and the Cold War-era narrative of political victimhood were intricately intertwined. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the aesthetic crisis and the resulting “void of meaning” faced by Western high modernist music in the 1950s and 1960s functioned as structural conditions that prompted the incorporation of non-Western thought. In this context, Daoist concepts in Yun’s music are understood not as autonomous philosophical expressions, but as symbolic resources translated to fulfill the demands of Western discourse. Through analysis of his works, the study examines how Eastern sonic and philosophical elements are reconfigured within Western notational systems and compositional frameworks. Meanwhile, Yun’s notion of “music between worlds” has often been interpreted as a radical gesture that transcends binary categorizations. However, this study critically argues that such a formulation simultaneously displaces his music from verifiable aesthetic criteria, functioning as a discourse that defers critical evaluation. From this perspective, Yun’s “Orientality” is not the manifestation of an autonomous identity, but rather a construct shaped within the legitimizing structures of Western contemporary music discourse. In conclusion, this study does not seek to deny Yun’s artistic achievements. Rather, by exposing the structures of symbolic protection and exemption surrounding his work, it calls for restoring his music to a space of critical inquiry and debate.
동북아시아문화학회 [The Association of North-east Asian Cultures]
설립연도
2000
분야
복합학>학제간연구
소개
동북아시아 문화의 다양성과 정체성을 연구 토론하고, 지역내 문화 교류의 다양한 모습을 연구하고 문화변동의 큰 틀을 집적함으로써 우리 민족 문화 및 상대 민족의 문화적 터전을 이해하여 문화공동체적 특성을 계발하고 상호 관련성의 강화를 유도하는 학술활동을 통해 동북아시아의 문화발전에 이바지함.