서정인의 <강>에 나타난 공간 구조의 특징과 의미

Abstract

This study selected Seo Jeong-In's novel <The River> in order to investigate the spatial structure's characteristics and its meanings and to contemplate the author's awareness seen in the novel, because the investigator thought that the work identifying Seo Jeong-In's novel's characteristics by recognizing the spatial structure's characteristic and its meaning would be an important method to identify the author's literature world. For this purpose, this study quoted Malmgren's narrative space theory from the macroscopic term, and analyzed the novel's narrative structure from the microscopic term, and then applied the spatial concepts of points, lines, and planes to the novel. Additionally, in order to discuss the narrative space, this study divided into the narrative space's layers into the 'narratival space' and the 'narrational space' and tried to analyze the novel. The work comprehensively investigating the 'narratival space's characteristics and meanings and those of narrational space will become a methodology to view an author's works from a consistent viewpoint. Looking into the narratival space's characteristics and meanings, the narratival space in the novel <The River> minimized the narration caused from the absence of conflicts and the successive list of actions, but as the actions were gradually being developed in the latter half, the meanings were gradually created. Besides, the start point was oppositively juxtaposed with the arrival point around the life line being compared to the river, and the both points were gradually integrated into a point. The bus reflecting the plane's spatiality is a symbolic space that controlled the figures' consciousness through its conflicting attributes of stop and movement and showed the excluded people's stagnant life appearances. The 'inn' can be said as a symbolic space that the horizontal life that the figures had gone through on earth was integrated with the vertical eyes being symbolized as the embracement, that is, the earthly life was integrated with the heavenly world. The spaces showing the life's spatiality were the road and the river. The road space exercised the narrative space implying this novel's format and its theme through the flow being expressed as a line. The river can be considered as another form of road, and implies the time flow for figures to live through. The 'road' and the 'river' were the narrative spaces revealing the fact that it was the life that the vulgar, common figures coexisted and flew toward one point. Looking into the narrational space's characteristics and meanings, various minds of people being familiar with the life frustrations and disappointments were appeared in mix with several figures' voices. Such a mixing description freely moved through main figures' views and minds and gradually focused on them in order, and that was repeated in the circle shape and was eventually integrated into the starting point. That takes the function giving the even view to each figure, not appearing the narrator in front as much as possible. Besides, such intentional, elaborate narrative tool's strategies present exceptional senses of tense and balance to this novel which was absent any tangible narration. Besides, the narrator made the past into the present time utilizing the technique making the time as a space and integrated the physical time into a point which some snow fell, leading to see Mr. Kim living in an alienated life from the real world and various figures' appearance in pitiful eyes. Like that, while he suggested the tragic consciousness on the life through various figures' miserable appearances, Seo Jeong-In revealed the author's awareness sending his pitiful and comforting view toward them by utilizing the spatial structure integrating the all narrations and the descriptive technique distributing the even view to the all figures.