이호철 소설의 분단 인식 연구

Abstract

This study was written to examine the worth of Lee, Ho-cheol’s literature under the division of the Korean peninsula. The subject of this study was limited to the novels based on the division of our nation. The tragedy of division drive our national spirit and culture into the state of separation. Today, the regional division of the Korean peninsula broke our nation in half in various aspects—in our feelings, our ideas, our senses of value, etc. Regardless of region (North of South) and ideology (Socialism of Democratism), we must retrieve our national homogeneity. Because it is the best way to accomplish the reunification of North and South Korea and to embody a real humanism. Lee, Ho-cheol has been writing novels on the subject of national homogeneity. His novels show a distinguishing structure of ‘antagonism and reconciliation.’In the introduction of story, the characters of his novel are always in opposition with a consciousness of hostility. But they show an ultimate reconciliation in the end though the enhancement of mutual understanding. And this structure has a feature expanding with the passage of time. In Lee, Ho-cheol’ early works, the structure of‘antagonism and reconciliation’showed itself in the brotherhood or the connection with friends. For instance, in “A nude figure”(1956),‘Chil-sung’disregarded his elder brother but the brothers shared love and reconciliation with each other in the end through the Korean War. As a result of this study, I could grasp the intention to achieve our national reconciliation and the effort to enhance our human love and understanding in Lee, Ho-cheol’s novels. This steady effort in his literature is a worthy message to the younger generation which did not go through the trauma of the Korean War, and simultaneously an opportunity of reflection to the older generation which has a delusion of persecution and a‘Red-complex.’ At the same time, Lee, Ho-cheol’s literature has the defect that it occasionally depends on sentimental feelings and overlapping theme.