정지용의 ‘자동차(automobile)’ 테크놀로지 체험과 문학적 재현: 「유선애상」을 중심으로

Abstract

The poem “Yoo Seon Ae Sang (流線哀傷)” published in 1936 by Jeong Ji-yong has been regarded as a difficult poem. Starting from the results of previous studies that revealed that this poem deals with the subject of ‘automobile’, this study attempts to interpret the poem as the text of the “era of speed.” The poet's interest in technology and machinery is well expressed in the writings left by Jeong Ji-yong. In this context, the poem can also be viewed as a work that expresses the poet's fascination with the modern technology/ machine of automobiles. The poet was always fascinated by the streamlined automobile, a modern newspaper, and the speed it produced, and decided to rent a car and run along the Gyeongchun Road (京春街道) at an opportunity. However, the drive that the poet had expected fell far short of expectations due to the traffic congestion in the city center and the roughness of the Gyeongchun Road. The “modern speed,” which the poet aspired to, was possible only when all the mechanical and technical conditions of the latest streamlined cars and asphalt roads were met, and the conditions were very limited in colonial Korea. This “restrictive condition” itself can be newly read as a text suggesting that it was a material condition of the world that modern Korean literature wanted to reproduce.