이효석의 일본어 소설 시대인식 연구-「은은한 빛」이 제기하는 ‘ 조선적인 것’

Abstract

Lee is commonly known to have western aesthetic consciousness. But I notice his works in Japanese and the meaning of writhing in Japanese in the view of diglossia. In the late colonial era, Korean writers couldn’t write in their mother tongue and Hangul for Japanese colonial cultural policy. So they should had written in Japanese about Korean people’s life, culture, nature, etc. Japanese authorities permitted to write in Korean about only justification of Japan’s colonial rule and militarism. Colonial government sought to Joseonness(Korean like things) to remove it, Korean writers looked for it to confirm their ethnic identity. This was a very ironic situation for Korean writers. According to above, the issue of making tradition as one of nation-building processes is significant in the field of Korean modern literature study, especially ‘writing in Japanese’ and ‘national literature’ in the late colonial era. At that time, a case happened that ‘a kisaeng put on a antique crown’, as this had been revealed newspapers and intellectuals become angry. That is, they regarded the crown as one of cultural properties of Joseon. I think that the reflection of the case was one of evidences of the spread and growing of social consciousness. Lee took the case as a motif for his Japanese novel 「The Elegant Light」. It is a story about a sword made in Goguryeo era. I think that Lee wanted to show that colonial Joseon people began to aware sociocultural and economic exchangeable values of ancient artifacts. As we know, at the same times many colonial intellectuals got to know modern nation-state system, too. At this point, some issues are raised, for example ethno-nationalism, colonialism, orientalism, ethnic identity, cultural capital, national literature, etc. This paper explores how are these issues represented to Lee’s critical awareness on social problems in his Japanese novel The Elegant Light and some columns. His times that Lee understood was in a bud stage of Joseon’s social cognition on indigenous tradition. Nevertheless, The Elegant Light shows successfully his aesthetic consciousness like his other works.