바다의 경계 확장과 의미 변화 연구 - 천승세의 희곡 <만선>에서 소설 <빙등>까지

Abstract

To fully understand Cheon Seung-se's maritime literature, it is necessary to study his early play Manseon and his late novel Bingdeung, together with his major works, Nakwoldo and Singung. Like Nakwoldo and Singung, these two works depict the highhandedness of ship-owners who control the means of production and the lives of people who struggle to survive amid the instability of the sea, but they also feature a structure that expands from the nearby sea to the ocean, and focus on the clash between traditional and modern values. Although Manseon depicts the generational conflict between Gomchi and Dosam on the surface, what lies behind it is the changing landscape of the fishing village. It is no longer possible to earn a living from the sea with traditional fishing techniques alone. The sea is now a battleground full of competitors armed with cutting-edge technology and equipment, while Korean fishermen are still poor and trapped in the traditional structure of exploitation. This structure of exploitation was further expanded upon in Bingdeung. By the time of Bingdeung, the class structure of ship-owners and fishermen had developed into a state-to-state relationship in which the individual is powerless. Central figures such as Yu Gwan-soo and Yoo Seong-jun stop challenging this form of governance and rather focus on showing it to the reader. They discuss the urge to run into the sea, but their words and actions are not free from the class structure. What Cheon Seung-se must have encountered while the boundary was expanding from the nearby sea to the vast ocean would have been a sea without the slightest possibility of an alternative locality, a sea dominated by a greater structure and a powerless state, which ultimately provided the conclusion to Cheon Seung-se's maritime literature.