『갑오농민전쟁』에 나타난‘서울’의 재현 양상과 의미

Abstract

Park Tae-Won who attracted attention as a flag bearer of modernismliterature in the modern times of Korea by describing ‘Gyeongseong’inthe 1930s using a modernological methodology in One Day of NovelistMr. Gu Bo(1934) and Riverside Scenery(1937) was reborn as the bestrealism author in North Korea by publishing historical sagas one afteranother after defecting to North Korea in 1950 such as Are EnlightenedMountains and Streams Being Brightened(1965~66), The Gabo PeasantWar(1977~86). A novel that is mentioned as a definite representativework among Park Tae-Won’s works after his defection to North Korea isThe Gabo Peasant War which is the last work of the author. The GaboPeasant War can be said to be a historical saga worthy of close attentionin this epoch of ours in which the heroic activities of Jeon Bong-Jun andOh Sang-Min who systematically led a peasant revolution from thebottom against feudal ruling powers and foreign powers centering onregions such as Gobu and Jeonju were embodies with full tension. Thispaper is intended to examine The Gabo Peasant War centering on majorplaces in it, in particular, ‘Seoul’among them that provides branchpoints of the progress of narrations. The movements of the ruling powersin the Late Period of Chosun and foreign powers made around ‘Seoul’immediately after the port opening and the processes of peasants’armedforces’resistance against the powers and their revolution form a majorpart of the work. Therefore, the space termed‘ Seoul’can be said to be abridgehead that presents the context of the times which were thebeginning of modern times as well as the moment of the composition ofthe novel. In addition, Park Tae-Won is ruminating his memory of‘ hometown’remaining in his inner side even after the flow of the time ofseveral decades after his defection to North Korea by reproducing thescenery of ‘Seoul’that had been completely captured by the author’seyes that were like a camera as his native place and a subject of‘modernology’as it was in the novel with his shining linguistic sense. Assuch, ‘Seoul’occupies a certain position as an internal moment thatleads the constructive flows of the novel and a place in which Park Tae-Won’s modernistic creation techniques are implemented. Taking note ofsuch composite spatiality of ‘Seoul’, this paper is intended to firstexamine the appearance of Seoul that has been concretely reproduced inThe Gabo Peasant War in a‘ modernological methodology’by associatingit with the surrounding circumstances and situations at that time. Thereafter, the historical events turbulent around Seoul that act asinevitable moments that support the constructive flows of the entire novelby organically interlocking with the process of development of the novelwill be examined. The modernological narrations about ‘Seoul’as a major space of TheGabo Peasant War are not simply the descriptions of the customs of thetimes or the reproduction of internal scenery that becomes a subject withobservers’eyes but act as inevitable internal moments to draw thehistorical event termed‘ Donghak peasantry revolution’.