고은의 『만인보』에 나타난 근대적 주체 인식

Abstract

This paper focused on analyzing modern subject in Ten Thousand Lives of Ko-Un. Ten Thousand Lives was comprised of 4001 statements of 5600 people from ancient times to present-day, from mythical to historical, and from governing class to subject people. A distinguishing mark of Ko-Un’s poem, a national consciousness was related with a variety of problems and responses based on historical awareness. A description of formation of modern subject was an important point which Ten Thousand Lives provided a grand story and an epic poem. Ten Thousand Lives, a collection of serial poems featuring ‘a subjectivization of subject’, was consistent with a process of formation of modern subject in history. It was significant that the serial poems were not only limited to Korean modernization but also expanded to universal emotions of global citizens. Specifically, the socially weak, such as ‘a child’, ‘a woman’, and ‘a servant,’ appeared as poetic speaker in poems to seek ‘a recognition on reality’ of modern subject. ‘A practical awareness’ of modern subject reflected the essence of an era, a symbol of smaller condemned and suppressed community in a larger community, ‘a society’. A awareness of an era developed to a practical awareness. A formation of modern subject, described in Ten Thousand Lives, had differentiated and had characteristic features of ‘ours’ experiencing the Korean Empire and Japanese Colical Period. Ko-Un identified a premodern society as an important point to form modern subject.