‘카르멘’의 조선적 수용과 역사적 상상력－염상섭의 『광분』론－

Abstract

This paper discusses the reception and transformation of various media around the time when Yum Sang-seop’s Gwangbun was created. Around the 1930s, Carmen was received and adapted in various ways around the world through various media, including novels, operas, films, plays, and radio plays. Yum Sang-seop’s Gwangbun is a work that well illustrates the cultural turns of the time. Therefore, this article examined the relationship between Carmen and Gwangbun from various angles. In particular, it discussed how the colonial appropriation and the author’s historical imagination based on the historical reality of the time are revealed through the transformation of the female character Carmen and the content, and the relationship between Carmen and Jose. In Gwangbun, Min Kyung-ok is a female character who not only plays Carmen but also desires to become Carmen in reality. The aria Carmen she sings and the performance of Carmen also undergo the cultural transformation. However, this work not only borrows the main motif of Carmen, but also raises the question of whether a female character who wants to become Carmen in colonial Korea is even possible. Ultimately, Min Kyung-ok’s death in the narrative leads the narrative to a catastrophe and reveals the realistic problem that Carmen is impossible in colonial Korea. What is particularly noteworthy in this work is that the narratives in the first half and the second half are divided into two different parts. In particular, the scene in which the Japanese pianist Nakamura looks at Kyung-ok with “exotic” curiosity and Kyung-ok feels uncomfortable with this is the starting point. This ethnic boundary between Koreans and Japanese becomes an important criterion for understanding Gwangbun. In Gwangbun, Nakamura’s “exotic” curiosity about Gyeongok is an important feature that runs through the novel and the opera Carmen. In the original work, the relationship between Jose and Carmen was noted as being “exotic” and “exclusive.” Yum Sang-seop attempted active transformation and creation by filling in the ethnicity of colonial relations to these original characteristics. And by connecting the major historical and social events of the time, he conveys the theme of national justice and resistance. Therefore, it can be seen that the work takes on a composition that seeks to satisfy the desire for resistance and desire against the contradictions of the real world through historical imagination.