탈북문학의 형성과 전개 양상

Abstract

As the Cold War ended and the misrule of North Korea was revealed through its serious economic crisis, the relationship between South Korea and North Korea could no more be approached with the viewpoint of the past era. It became also difficult for the literature about the division of the Korean Peninsula to form an effective discussion on division and unification since the 1990s. In this period, there was a rapid increase in North Korean defectors, which required a new perspective on literature. The literature of this period, which was oriented from division to unification with escape from North Korea as the medium, is called the literature about North Korean defectors. You can see the sign of the literature about North Korean defectors from a series of novels about escape of North Koreans due to a shortage of food in North Korea since the opening of China in the 1990s. Those novels including "Watch over Father," a short story by Choi Yoon, focus on a story of contact between South Korean figures and those who have escaped from North Korea. Next, a series of novels that paid attentionto the mass defection from North Korea, which began in the period of ‘the march of hardship’ in the middle of 1990s, showed an aspect of the literature about North Korean defectors totally different from that of the literature about division of the Korean Peninsula. "You Suffer Loneliness Even When You Are Together," a short story by Park Deokkyoo, is a novel that represents this period. Afterwards, the literature about North Korean defectors developedlargelyin two aspects. One of them is novels with North Korean defectors who reside in a third country as the main character such as "Barideki," a full-length novel by Hwang Seok-young, "Wild Rose," a series novel by Jeong Do-sang, "Lina," a full-length novel by Kang Young-sook, and "Met Roh Ki-Wan," by Cho Hae-jin. The other is the novels that depict those North Korean defectors who settled in South Korea but failed to adapt to the country properly such as "LeftHanded Mr. Lee," a full-length novel by Kwon Li, "Ghost," a full-length novel by Kang Hee-jin, and "Shame," a full-length novel by Jeon Soochan. The former reminds us of the fact that the issue of North Korean defectors meets diaspora, a grave theme that has lasted in the society of the mankind. On the other hand, the latter stresses the fact that North Korean defectors have the same context as that of the isolated other in the multi-cultural era. The literature about North Korean defectors also includes a sort of ‘the literature about marginal men who escaped from North Korea,’ which reveals the position as marginal men of those from North Korea such as spies sent to the South and political refugees to a third country, the literature about children and adolescents from North Korea, and poems and novels about escape from North Korea created by North Korean defectors themselves. Therefore, the literature about North Korean defectors comes to help build a cultural foundation for preparing for unification in that it actively accepts the issue of unification, which is the most important contemporary theme. It also needs attention as it can actively substitute the North Korean literature, which has fallen into political slogans.