김유정 문학의 로컬리티 연구

Abstract

The literature of Kim Yu-jeong, one of the greatest writers from Gangwon Province during the Japanese rule, has been highly acclaimed in terms of literature and literary history for its realistic reproduction of cruel and miserable reality of the rural community. Kim depicted his hometown Sile village, Chuncheon as a small quiet, cut, and cozy country or remote village, describing the warm heart and innocent character of Gangwon people leading a poetic life. Even though he depicted his hometown based on his warm attachment to it, the reality of agricultural communities in Gangwon in the 1930s was rather different: they were stricken with destitution and poverty. The village people had to collect wild edible greens in the mountain to maintain a living. Out-of-towners would flow into the villages that were characterized by inconvenient transportation and absence of information to pursue the prevalent get-rich-quick fever and get-rich-quick business there through gambling and money. It had something to do with the topographic locality of Mt. Geumbyeong and gold development. Of the writer’s character types, the naive and inflexible farmer and his obedient wife that sold drinks as a peddler and was forced to prostitution under violence and curse words presented extreme and radical daily life. The writer also showed the tragedy of ambivalent life in the colonized rural communities by depicting young country men and women that were lively, full of vitality, and loyal to desire such as Deokdol, Deokman, Jeomsun, and Ippeun and also the bottom life of Taraji and Manmubang. He inserted a lot of Arirang folk songs, Sijos and lyrics in his literature and used them as effective literary devices to deliver his thematic consciousness to report on the brutality of the ruling Japanese and criticize the reality in the society of strict censorship. There was the coexistence of pre-modern and modern features in the society, given the old customs such as Sanje, the traditional consciousness depending on faith for blessing, and colonial capitalist thinking. In his works, locality was best reproduced in his styles of writing and vocabulary including the vernacular, sensory(auditory) expression, colloquial language, and Pansori Jaedam. His nature-friendly attitude of personifying and identifying with animals and plants became one of the characteristics of Gangwon's literature that was nature-friendly and connected to locality.