세계 상실에 맞선 생명의 영가(靈歌) －한하운의 시세계－ 경희대학교 후마니타스칼리지

Abstract

The nickname ‘leper poet’ or the assessment as a lyric poet whose poetry is set in folk or natural world always follow Han Ha-un around like a shadow. Early research on Han mostly focused on emphasizing him as the ‘leprosy’ patient in the context of Korean lyricism. His life history has begun to be reexamined only recently, which means that research on Han Ha-un still needs a great deal of supplementation. This paper aims to present three points in regards to the world of Han Ha-un’s literature. First, Except for a short period during his childhood, Han Ha-un was practically forced to wander around the country due to people’s prejudice against ‘leprosy.’ By paying attention to this forced wanderings, this paper suggests reading his poetry in the context of loss of home and a longing for a place in the world as a form of compensation. A keen interest in ‘place’ that is essentially private and intimate, which is unlike the more objective ‘space,’ is an important theme that penetrates through the world of Han Ha-un’s poetry. Second point I would like to raise is related to the fact that the course of life for Han was a series of experience which entailed being expelled and excluded from the categories of modern subject such as ‘human,’ ‘people’ or ‘citizen.’ As such, being engaged in literature, which is something based on ‘human emotion’ was the device through which he could prove himself as a ‘human being’ not different from any other people. That is why he chose ‘poetry,’ and not prose. There also lies the reason that he repeatedly insisted that his poems were the ‘spiritual songs of life.’ For Han, writing poetry was much more a human act that proves its author, in this case, himself, as a human being than an aesthetic activity. Lastly, Han’s poetry which is set in the folk or natural world has been read in the context of Korean sentiments thus far. However, the reason that he consciously chose nature as his poetic subject is that nature is the only positive world fro which he never experienced being excluded or expelled. It also contains the twofold implication of ‘home’ in terms of representation. For Han Ha-un, the literature had a parallel relation with life. Hence, only when his poetry is interpreted in the context of understanding his view of the world can the world of his poetry reveal its meaning most prominently.