일제시대 열녀 담론의 향방: 독립운동가 아내의 ‘순종(殉終)’과 그 맥락

Abstract

The present study analyzes the life and suicide note of Yun Deok-gyeong, who killed herself by taking poison 40 days after the death of her husband Jeong-geon Hyeon, an independence fighter,and contemporaries’ news coverage and commentaries on this incident to explore the semantic context of “virtuous wives”(yeollyeo) and “sacrificial suicide” (sunjong) during the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945). Born into a family of upper-class scholar-officials (yangban) and married to Jeong-geon Hyeon through an arrangement between the two families, Deok-gyeong Yun in fact was not able to lead a marital life with her husband. He immediately left home and immersed himself in the anti-Japanese independence movement and, during this period, was romantically involved and lived with Gye-ok Hyeon, a former professional female entertainer (gisaeng). Although Deok-gyeong Yun went to Shanghai in search of her husband in the early days, she was sent back to Korea, where she received modern, Westernized education and worked as a teacher at one time as well. It was only after Jeong-geon Hyeon was arrested by the Japanese police, imprisoned, and released that Deok-gyeong Yun was able finally to be together, nursing him. However,Jeong-geon Hyeon died six months later, and she committed “sacrificial suicide.” Major newspapers and magazines that hitherto had reported the romance between Gye-ok Hyeon and Jeong-geon Hyeon now covered Deok-gyeong Yun’s death extensively. During Deok-gyeong Yun’s life, Gye-ok Hyeon was Jeong-geon Hyeon’s wife in the sphere of public discourse, and contemporary newspapers and magazines reported with ado that Deok-gyeong Yun had been Jeong-geon Hyeon’s wife only after Deok-gyeong Yun had chosen death. By thus “choosing” death, In that she was acknowledged as Jeong-geon Hyeon’s wife in the sphere of public discourse for the first time, Deok-gyeong Yun’s death can be seen as a “double suicide” (jeongsa), a form of “romantic love,” which is true to one’s own feelings, unlike the obedience of earlier times driven by “duty” (dori). In addition, nationalists who took an interest in Deok-gyeong Yun’s death at the time criticized her act as mere selfishness and argued that, with such passion, she should have lived on and become the wife and mother of the nation,continuing her husband’s work. This inversely signifies that Deok-gyeong Yun exercised self-determination neither as a virtuous wife nor as a mother of the nation but as a being outside such values of a community. It is thus that Deok-gyeong Yun’s “obedience” and tales of virtuous wives starring her came no longer to function as discourses of virtuous wives.