마쓰모토 세이초(松本淸張) 추리소설의 한국 수용 —번역과 TV 드라마를 중심으로—

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how Matsumoto Seicho’s (so-called) “Social school” mystery fiction have been adapted and accepted in Korea by analyzing some of the Korean translations and the TV drama adaptations. “Social school” mystery fiction, created by Matsumoto Seicho, have been one of the most popular mystery fiction genres in Japan since the late 1950s. Unlike the classic mystery fiction in which professional detectives solve difficult and extraordinary crime cases, social school mystery fiction take their subject from reality, ordinary life. Thus, ordinary people appear as criminals or take the detective role, and the novel tries to not only find out the criminal but rather reveal the complicated motives of crime on the social level. It is in 1960 that one of the Seicho’s works was introduced to Korea. First introduced as the winner of the Akutagawa Award, he was later known to Korean intellectuals through his novel The Poet of the North published in a Japanese magazine, for which he has been harshly criticized by Korean intellectuals as anti- merican and communist. His literary character was also questioned, because he was a bestselling writer. Nevertheless, Seicho’s works were consistently translated and published from the 1960s to the 1990s in Korea. Some critics and translators were well aware of the merits or characteristics of Seicho’s social mystery fiction, but the social and historical contexts (of post-war Japan) were eliminated or modified. In the 1980s Seicho’s works were made into TV dramas, and in the adaptations the “social” resonance was highly weakened, and melodramatic aspects emphasized instead. Social school mystery focus on the everyday situation and criminal’s inner motive; this means a risk of falling into a melodrama. Seicho’s original works suggest the structural contradiction of post-war Japanese society, which suppress the melodramatic features and highlight social context. On the other hand, in the Korean adaptation versions, social resonance is largely weakened, and the melodramatic traits become apparent instead.