‘사실의 세기’를 건너는 방법―1940년 전후 서정주 산문과 릴케에의 대화

Abstract

This article was prepared to review any relationship between Seo Jeong-joo and Rilke's poetics. One researcher proposed a new argument regarding the shift of Midang's poetry, in particular the leaping process toward “eternity” during the period under the Japanese colonial rule by proposing as significant Midang's effect by and acceptance of Rilke. The researcher is on the side of agreeing fully with the matter of the effect and acceptance issue regarding Rilke; however, it is believed that this may become a problem if the period is postponed to be around 1943 when the creation of “national poetry” by Midang was pursued seriously. This paper established a hypothesis that if the poetic conversation between Midang and Rilke is true and that their meeting must have begun from themid to late 1930s when Rilke was introduced fully to Japan and Joseon. It seems that certain things in common between Rilke and Midang are discovered in terms of the criticism of modern civilization, pursuit of pure poetry, absolutization of poetic eternity and the memories in childhood, and the planning of the future based on foresight at least intheir poetic shift. In order to prove this, first, this paper looked into the poetics of the 1950s when Midang mentioned Rilke for the first time, and reviewed the reality and meaning of “oriental foresight”. Second, Midang undertook the dialectic of leaving hometown which was return to the home of pure poetry and eternity and returning to hometown through the “anxiety of the effect” and conquest (this was commonly expressed as denial of reality and a desire for leaving hometown) about Baudelaire and Rimbaud. Rilke also was deeply inclined to the effect of Baudelaire;however, ultimately, he proceeded to a projection of an ego regarding a “cosmic intrinsic space” (“infinite reality”) where life and death, God and nature, and the past and the present are all integrated. The paper considered this process and the similarity in the change of Midang’s poetry from the will to escape specifically from the aestheticdisconnection from Rimbaud expressed in his prose “Wandering”, longing for “pure poetry”, and the reality for that (life, family, friends, and the Joseon language). Third, Rilke explored the possibility of “infinite reality” through the poetic return to his childhood rather than to a contrived future. Midang also discovered the possibility of “pure poetry” from “oriental eternity” and also found its foundation from the memories of Jilmajae during his childhood and their valuating. Of course, Midang focused on socialintercourses with “an aesthetic school” that was alienated from “Jilmajae” his hometown rather than the valuating of an innocent ego of his childhood. In order to study historical evidence faithfully and construe newly these facts, the paper focused on three proses regarding “Jilmajae” during the early 1940s, which were not known to the reading public. Among others, the paper focused on “Hyangtosanhwa (鄕土散話)”, which contained the story of “four girls” who had the greatest effect on Midang. This paper concludes that the direct and indirect effect of Rilke on Midang and the contents of his acceptance were concretized to some extent through the above process.