한국 현대문학과 도시공간의 의미

Abstract

An attempt to figure out the space of literature is understood as an investigation on how it makes literature special and significant as background. The space in literature is more than just material but a symbol itself. A better understanding of literary space further specifies the meaning of work and offers reality. Literary space represents a geographical object that is primarily described in literature. The specified space is very efficient in aesthetically reorganizing falsehood by improving field actuality and reality in understanding literature. Therefore, it is essential to understand space to analyze literature. An understanding of Korean modern literature and urban problems starts in analyzing the literary atmosphere formed during the Japanese colonial period. In fact, urbanization is the fundamental base to realize modern values. Modernization will not manifest without urbanization. The growth─oriented economic development has caused urban migration, making Seoul a more bustling and crowded city. The rapid urbanization also caused several problems such as the collapse of rural communities and over development of nearby regions. After all, an interest in modern Korean literature required an understanding and awareness of the rapid urbanization and the contradiction of contemporary life. In modern Korean literature,‘urban space’is not a pure concept. It contains specific history since the problems of urbanization are closely related with Korean capitalism. Here, capitalism internalizes urban life as a symbol. Korean capitalism has developed around Seoul’s capital - intensive background. Therefore, the significance could not be reproduced without the symbolism of Seoul. Since the Korean War, Korean literature was developed on urban sensibilities or imagination. Therefore, it had no choice but to keep a close relationship with capitalism. The problem is the‘moral legitimacy’of Korean capitalism. The corrupt businesses that developed and expanded under capitalism and the military government stimulated literary imagination that originated from urban space. In other words, urban imagination could not separate from Korean capitalism since the 1960s. This paper has investigated the relationship of literature to urban space and its symbolic significance. The focus was on literature from where the problems of urban space were understood and observed. Urban life was examined in connection with the problems of Korean capitalism. Literature where the problems of urban space stood out was analyzed starting from 1960 to the 1990s when industrialization and urbanization were sharply promoted.