『독일, 겨울이야기』와 『조선 겨울이야기』의 비교 연구

Abstract

In this article, I compare and analyze the similarities of German poet Heine’s epic 『Germany, Winter Story』to Namki Huh’s 『Chosun Winter Story』. Namki Huh is a Korean-Japanese Diaspora poet who mainly worked in Japan. Even though he was renowned in Japan, his nationality prohibited him from playing an active role in the center of the Japanese literary circle and from being famous. Because he was a Korean-Japanese Diaspora poet, Huh was not properly reputed in Japanese society. On the other hand, his work tends to be too strongly pro-North Korea to nest in Korean literary world. The language barrier was another obstacle to reconcile with Korean literary circle; the poet wrote poetries in Japanese for a long time. However, even though Huh wrote poetries in Japanese, the target included not only the Japanese but also the Koreans. For he was Korean, the poetic nature of Huh’s work lied in bringing Korean sentiment and soul to the work-it would not be wrong to consider the poet considered Korean readers when creating. This paper contemplates the similarities of Namki Huh’s 『Chosun Winter Story』 and Heine’s 『Germany, Winter Story』 focusing on the history and the contemporary situations of the motherland which two poets were singing through their poems, for the two share similar title, form, and contents. The topic can be concluded as following:Firstly, the German poet Heinrich Heine and Korean poet Namki Huh shared the similarities in their identity as a Diaspora poet who had left their homeland and lived in foreign countries. Also, Namki Huh’s representative poetical works 『Chosun Winter Story』 borrowed the title from Heine’s 『Germany, Winter Story』—from the title itself, Huh’s work seemed to be affected by Heine’s. The overall composition of the collection also borrowed Heine’s form of travelogue-epic poetry. Secondly, in terms of the content of poems, both poets criticized their motherland’s politics lagging behind. The poets living in exile sharply criticized their homelands’ feudality and autocracy as well as political and social realities of being backwater, based on their love and longing for the homeland. Also, Namki Huh utilized the motif of sleep from Heine’s work; he urged the public to wake up and to be enlightened to join and lead the revolution. Same as Heine, in Huh’s 『Chosun Winter Story』, he depicted his mother as merciful that guards not only the motherland but also the poet. Thirdly, in terms of expressive technique, while Heine covered the reader’s eyes with satire and irony with the purpose of avoiding the censorship, Huh utilized ordinary and straightforward expressions enabling the reader to easily understand the content. Namki Huh considered the public reader, aiming for demagogic effect and describing his ideology without hesitation or manipulation. Since he wrote his poets in Japanese targeting Japanese reader at first, it is assumed that his expressions were more liberal. Namki Huh expressed his love and patriotism by longing for reunification of Korea and criticizing only South Korea. However, he was standing in pro-North Korean side; his biased ideologies contrasts to Hiene’s universal patriotism based on liberalism. Namki Huh appeared to be limited in that he only supported what he adhered to and criticized and attacked the other side with outspoken and unfiltered expressions; in 『Chosun Winter Story』, he only dealt with one side’s story instead of covering both North and South Korean realities. Despite restrictive circumstances, Huh deserves to praise for his literary attempt to embrace 『Germany, Winter Story』 and to show unique travelogue- epic verses as well as to try to write Korean poetries. A wide range of interpretation and analysis obtained from corresponding to both Heine’s and Huh’s works expand their mutual poetic fields beyond Asia and Europe creating a new dimension afterwards. The study, however, has not yet included aspects of reception and influences of Heine in Japan in its early stage. I expect that follow-up studies extend the scope of examination of Namki Huh’s acceptance of Heine and their co-relations.