아동문학가 이원수와 그의 친일시 속화자 사이에 드러나는 긴장

Abstract

Like the appraisal “childlike innocence that lives history”, Lee Won-su is a commonly acknowledged children's literature writer who reacted sensitively and earnestly to the moments of history. Thus, although there are ‘only’ five Pro-Japanese works by Lee Won-su, they caused quite a sensation among people and people defined him as ‘Pro-Japanese’ based on his Pro-Japanese works. This indicates something clearly, which is largely divided into two. First, people have a misunderstanding of the relationship between children’s literature writer Lee Won-su and the narrator in his Pro-Japanese works. In other words, people did not closely review the distance between children’s literature writer Lee Won-su and the narrator in his Pro-Japanese works and viewed them as the same. In addition, due to such problematic perspective people broadly interpreted the characters of several works among Lee Won-su’s different works and judged the world of his works. Therefore it is necessary to correct this obsession and error by closely examining the relationship and distance between writer and narrator in the work. Second, although there are ‘only’ five Pro-Japanese works by Lee Won-su the weight and the seriousness of problem they carry are ‘never’ light, considering the size of stir caused among people. Thus, this confirms that Lee Won-su’s ‘only’ five Pro-Japanese works are enough to become a discussion topic for an academic paper, and at the same time it is necessary to examine Lee Won-su’s Pro-Japanese works in detail as one independent topic of discussion. On the other hand, considering that Lee Won-su mainly pursued historical scenes as subject matters of his works, it can be perceived that the subject matters revealed in his Pro-Japanese works were what he usually excluded and refused. As a result, there are dislocation and tension between the world of works Lee Won-su consistently pursued and his five Pro-Japanese works. Ultimately, they leave a question ‘Why did Lee Won-su remain silent on Pro-Japanese works until the moment he was laid to rest?’ Moreover, such doubt is a problem that is ‘never’ light as it connotes a political and ethical conflict of a clash between the wisdom of living in the Japanese colonial era and the self-pride he must uphold as a children’s literature writer. This paper examined the relationship between children’s book writer Lee Won-su and the narrator of his Pro-Japanese poems as well as the ‘tension’ that can be noticed from their distance, by focusing on three poems among Lee Won-su’s Pro-Japanese literary works: “Parachute”, “Sending Volunteers Out”, and “In a Barley Field-Songs of Young Peasant.” In addition, this paper investigated the meaning and value of Lee Won-su’s silence toward his Pro-Japanese works based on this analysis.