5.18과 모성 – 5.18 소설의 모성 재현을 중심으로

Abstract

This study focuses on how motherhood is represented in novels about the May 18 Democratization Movement (“May 18”). In my analysis, I deconstruct the fixed notion of mothers as historical victims and confirm the male-centered dominant cognitive framework behind the motherhood myth while also examining the multiple aspects of motherhood that appear throughout painful moments in history. In May 18 novels, mothers are portrayed as people who symbolize painful historical trauma and sacrifice. A mother who lost her son during May 18 loses her individual subjecthood and becomes a dependent being cared for by other men in her family. However, these are not the only representations of May 18 motherhood. They deconstruct gender identity and expose its instability and fluidity, moving away from their socially allocated spaces and coming forward as the primary subjects of their actions. The image of an individual subject who is different from before is momentarily manifested amid practice and struggle while directly participating in the demonstrations is revealed, as is the image of those who must secure a community-wise perspective as a reflective subject due to maternal conscience. What demands particular attention at this moment are mother’s bodies. In May 18 novels, the physicality of the mother reveals women’s pliable nature. Nevertheless, it becomes the driving force in charge of making practical and political decisions. In the motherhood represented in May 18 novels, death, curses, violence, and emptiness coexist alongside life and love. Motherhood also appears as an attribute of an individual with an instinctive vitality. This does not necessarily exist only in specific historical events. It also reveals the image of a maternal subject who recognizes children as living beings in everyday life and recognizes human lives anew within the flow of history. As such, the politics of motherhood in the May 18 novel was constructed through a circuit of ethical sense through body experience. The aspect in which the ethical sense of motherhood is connected to politics shows that political things can be reconstructed based on motherhood/female thinking. These various maternal subjects reveal the fictionality in the myth of sublime motherhood. In addition, it offers a clue regarding how to reconstruct the historical and political meanings of May 18, which may be fixed as public memory. The practicality and politicality of the motherhood/female subject can contribute to seeing its subjectivity anew within political and historical transformation.