1970년대 중반 이후 본격적으로 제기돼 1980년대 초반 뜨거운 논쟁을 불러 일으켰던 ‘제3세계 문학론’은 1970ㆍ1980년대 비평을 이해하는 핵심적 담론이다. 1980년대 문학에 대한 객관적 인식을 위해서는 1970년대 중반 이후의 문학비평 담론의 흐름에 주목해야 한다. 제3세계 문학에 대한 인식으로 한국문학은 라틴 아메라카의 종속심화 독점강화 논의를 한국적으로 재해석 할 수 있었다. 백낙청, 김종철, 구중서 등의 ‘제3세계 문학론’은 한국비평담론의 자생성 획득 과정에서 나온 주목할 만한 논의였다. 민족적 과제에서 더 나아가 ‘연대’의 모색으로 이어진 ‘제3세계 문학론’은 서구중심주의 극복의 과정에서 도출된 것이었고, 더불어 스스로 주변성을 인식함으로써 주체화되어 가는 여정에서 직면하게 된 비평담론이었다. ‘제3세계 문학론’은 민족문학 담론과 결합함으로써 한국적 문학담론의 형성 가능성을 타진할 수 있었고, 더불어 폐쇄적 민족주의와 갈등하는 비평이론으로서 기능하게 되었다. ‘불의 시대’라고 일컬어지는 1980년대는 1970년대가 배태시킨 인과론적 결론일 수 있으며 세계인식에 있어 선배 비평가들이 견지하려했던 ‘민족문학과 세계문학’의 긴장사이에서 발생한 인식론적 고투의 소산이다. ‘제3세계 문학론’은 한국비평담론에서 ‘식민주의 극복’의 과제가 한국적 특수성과 밀착된 탈식민적 인식과 연결될 수 있음을 실증했고, 서구 문학에 갇히지 않은 한국문학의 주체성을 예시해 주었다.
The Third World Literary Theory, which had fully dominated the discourse in the mid-1970s and became a hot issue in the early 1980s, is a core discourse in the understanding of criticism in the 1970s and 1980s. There have been two strong tendencies up until recent years: one is to attempt to consider the literature of the 1970s as separate from that of the 1980s, and the other one is to attempt to stress on the specialization of literary discourse as of 1987. In the core of the literary criticism that was prevalent both in the 1970s and 1980s, however, existed the deepening process of national literary theory and the discussion of realism triggered by the Third World Literary Theory. There are already three different analytical frameworks based on the Third World Literary Theory, which have been discussed in social science: modernism theory, dependency theory, and production mode theory. Particularly, the dependency theory and production mode theory make up the core cognitive structure in the social structure debate in the 1980s. For an objective recognition of the literature in the 1980s, it is necessary to pay attention to the literary criticism discourse after the mid-1970s in which the recognition of the Third World lay as a universal form of resistance, and as the logic of national independence led by the people intervenes, it has become more revolutionary. The recognition of the Third World has provided us with an opportunity to reinterpret the discussion on the deepening dependency and strengthening monopolization in Latin America from the perspective of Korea. Therefore, the realization that Korean society is a post-colonial, state-monopolized capitalist society has become widespread, and the desire for democracy along with the growth of people-consciousness strengthened. A close and careful discussion is required in the process in which thoughts and discussions by Baek, Nak Cheong, Kim, Jong Cheol, Lim, Hyeon Yeong, and Park, Tae Soon were criticized and substituted by Chae, Kwang Seok, Kim, Myeong In, Baek, Jin Ki, and Hyun, Joon Mans people-led revolution theory. We can, however, realize that the deepening recognition of the Third World played a crucial role in the center of the discourse. As the national literary theory joined the Third World, it could overcome reactionism and provide the basis on which it could join hands with right-wing nationalism. Therefore, the radical ideas led by Chae, Kwang Seok were possible only based on the influence of national literature, realism, and the Third World literary theory that had progressed since the mid- and late-1970s. The 1980s, often referred to as the "era of fire," was the logical outcome of the 1970s, and the universality that existed in the tension between national literature and global literature, the very relationship that critics of the past strived to take as a world viewpoint, was overthrown by the speciality, national independence and people independence, delineated by critics of latter times.