문학의 정치, ‘광주민주화운동’의 시적 재현-고은의 『만인보』(27-30)를 중심으로

Abstract

Ten Thousand Lives is poetic records of people Ko Un has known and known of. The fact that the background of its creation is The Gwangju Democratization Movement and it ends with it is important. Using poetic imagery, this work tries to portray the beginning of the most humanistic and common sense civil society during the most unfortunate and catastrophic experience in modern Korea. When we talk about history, it is generally about official history that reflects the ruling order and ideology of those in power. Whereas, the desire to discourse history and history as narration of stories tend to defy the official history. Ten Thousand Lives functions as narration of history or history as stories. History as stories is a sort of alternative history and it can be expanded and interpreted as a restoration of hidden history. Poetic recognition of history as stories is the foundation of Ten Thousand Lives. It is necessary to note that the poems in volumes 27 through 30 of Ten Thousand Lives are about people related to Gwangju Democratization Movement. The fact that the poet intentionally transformed Gwangju Democritization Movement into poems implies that not only its beginning but also its ending should be about the Gwangju Democritization Movement. As the movement was the result of state violence, a fundamental question remains, "Could the state be the agent to resolve the state violence?"The state as the agent for the healing of wounds means it takes the dominant position in discourse. The desire for history as stories or reinterpretation of history through stories are the same as a resistance to the dominant discourse of the state. This collection of poems tell and reinterpret history and confront the official notion and dominant authority. The poet was prosecuted for violating the positive law. This fact belongs to historical context and the domain of personal truth. At the same time, it is a facet of resistant discourse hidden behind the dominant discourse. Writing about memories is the most critical action to dismantle the established order as well as a desire to replace the falsified history. This motivated him to write Ten Thousand Lives and this is the reason why the Gwangju Democratization Movement becomes the ending of Ten Thousand Lives stories of history. Memories about history and poetic reproduction of memories in Ten Thousand Lives reject the objectification of memories and contributes to the positioning of past in the context of present. It is a desire to take history as stories and an imagination that topples established history. It is a desire to dismantle the dominant, authoritative, and established discourse and establish a new type of discourse, i.e. continuous telling of unfinished history or a desire to write about memories. To consider the violence and brutality of military regime as a past heritage to remember only is to fossilize history. Story of Gwangju Massacre through poems and rediscovery of Gwangju Massacre through history as stories were two of the most important roles of Ten Thousand Lives. The poet asserts that the word "Gwangju" not only symbolizes wounds, violence, and death but also contains important community experiences. The structure of Ten Thousand Lives itself expands personal lives into general, community aspects. The poems dealing with the Gwangju Democratization Movement were the poetic reaction to and witnesses of the movement, which sprouted a shoot of most beautiful civil society in the most tragic and appalling situation. And it was the poet's intention to tell stories of history. Ten Thousand Lives starts with Gwangju and ends with Gwangju. It is a return to poetic source and a recognition of literary origin. The poet demonstrates one important fact here. The space rampant with horrible killings and deaths was in fact a time to discover and experiment the most beautiful and honorable civic values. The desire to tell history is a desire to dismantle the dominant and authoritative discourse of official history. This desire is a will to restore the alienated history and excluded lives subversively and radically. This will leads to a fundamental question about what the humanity is beyond all the modern discourses. Paradoxically, the question about what the truly humanistic life is arose in the extreme situation where humans were no longer humans. Preservation of humanity was the most basic concept to maintain self-determined life. However, Gwangju also demonstrated civic values. Poetic restoration of Gwangju Democratization Movement cast important questions about humanity and civil society. This is the desire, and political and poetic accomplishment of Ten Thousand Lives that tried to tell history.