김은국 문학의 보편성과 대중 재현의 문제 : 한국 여행기 「오 나의 한국」(1966)과 소설 『심판자』(1968)를 중심으로

Abstract

Until now, the representative works and keywords that approach the literary world of Korean-American writer Richard E. Kim were The Martyred (1964) and universality. Their representativeness of these two has a strong influence and too many reviews and articles have been published. However, for this reason, many of Richard E. Kim's literary practices and their meanings still remained ununderstood. This paper attempted to examine his literary practices that have not been noticed before, paying attention to the period around 1965, when he became famous for the Martyred and just returned to South Korea. In particular, this paper reviewed his travel writing, “O My Korea,” and his novel, The Innocent (1968). This paper analyzed these two texts around three key words : translation, humanism, and Korean soldier. Through this, it was discovered that these two works were his texts that were not illuminated by the interest of The Martyred and the concept of universality, and those that were linked to the specific history of South Korea of the time. At that time, Richard E. Kim supported humanism, which meant recognizing the contradictions of life and bringing it to life. “O My Korea” was a travelogue that understood Korea from this perspective of humanism. This paper has found that although this travelogue was characterized in that the interaction of the contact zone where travelers and locals meet, but in the process of being translated into Korean, the vitality and reciprocity of the contact zone disappeared. In addition, Richard E. Kim revealed the humanism he supported through the young soldiers who were the protagonists of the novel The Innocent. In this novel, the Korean soldier was understood as a practical existence of humanism that cannot be understood by Western thought, and as a innocent and realistic being who pursues a greater cause than ordinary life. However, “O My Korea” and The Innocent were works that embodied the humanism that he supported throughout the 1960s, but in that humanism, the democratic capacities of the multitude could not be considered.