활동사진처럼, 열녀전처럼―축음기ㆍ(활동)사진ㆍ총, 그리고활자; ‘『무정』의밤’이 던진 문제들

Abstract

The origin of modern Korean literature is not from style of romanticism representing as nature or eternal feminine; rather, it comes from conflicts with media-technology. Since the beginning of 'modern Korean Literature' is placed in which accumulated with the experiences and impacts of gramophone, (motion) pictures, and typography at the same time, it is much more reasonable to say that literature and film were in the relation to co-exist from the very first time. For example, the early students who studied in Japan such as Yi Kwang-su, Kim dong-in, and Chu Yo-han mostly reached the films before literature, and faced with literature itself in the middle of examining depth of films. Literary writers in Korea tried to confirm literature as a fort for resistance,denying transfer and influence between films and literature, for they were sensitive to the relevance media technology like picture films trains had come with imperialism. Despite this circumstance, visual media endeavor to cultivate its own territory segregating from literature; yet, media found itself as a target to be debased as it connected with industrial mechanism more than anything. Media technology including films were finally endowed the state of literary art(文藝), 'translating' literature-more accurately to speak, almost like translating word for word- into media-form. However, the truth was unlike this intension; literature was the very thing confined by media. In this article, I refute conventional discussion enclosed with novel Mujŏng(Yi Kwang-su), and film Mujŏng(Park Kee-Chae) adapted for the screen. It is axiomatic that the experience and unconscious for media technology are deepened as a metaphoric system, structure of story, and iting style. Even though many of writers those days, including the author of the novel, considered film Mujŏng as a mean example of translating into media, it could be a peculiar bias relying on cultural status at that time. With this assumption, this article suggests the possibility that the film Mujŏng had translated media-like-elements existing in the novel very well as long as following their criteria, verbatim translation. As an example, two type of writing leading the story Mujŏng can be found; that is, the part described just like motion pictures and the rest written like the life story of exemplary women. The fact is that those parts are actually crossing. First, the part delineated like motion picture is mostly of depiction following the conscience of Yi Hyeong-sik hero of this novel, and it shows one aspect of paranoia concentrating on the virginity problem of Park Young-chae who is the this novel's heroine. The other is a part consisting of the voice of Park Young-chae that is about her life and history, which was a paramount feature for popular success of novel Mujong; needless to say, the effect of voice had a common factor with phonographs. Park Kee-Chae tried to synthesize all the asks literary art requested such as literal translation problem and locality of Korean Peninsula in 1939, realigning the story focusing on gisaeng(妓生) Park Young-chae. Precisely, this was a restoration of trace of media technology hidden in the novel. Modern literature could be defined as one of the performance eliminating the noise created by media technology, but it is also obvious that the signs of those noise have been remained in the novel since literature and media have existed side by side all the time. All in all, modern Korean literature had born not from the voice of mother, but from all the dissonance of technology and impact of motion picture. Further, novels in this era were filled with paranoia and spilt personality provoked by these influences. This article scrutinizing novel Mujŏng and film Mujŏng presents decisive factors for literature field are not only from innate origin, but from other influential media as well.