‘테이신타이(挺身隊)’로 동원된 여성의 포스트/식민 현실과 재현 난제 –하근찬의 『월례소전(月禮小傳)』을 중심으로–

Abstract

Through the Wol-Rye-So-Jeon (月禮小傳), author Ha, Geun-Chan aimed to inform succeeding generations about the nowness of colonial history that had already entered the horizon of oblivion. The author fulfilled his aim by presenting the life of Wol-Rye, who was taken to Sakhalin as Jeongshindae (Teisintai) in the late colonial era and failed to return to Korea. To teach about the colonial history and transcend the dichotomy of the ruler vs. the subjugated, Ha, Geun-chan created realistic Japanese characters who lived in Korea, highlighted the hierarchy and cracks in the Korean community, and described the reality of women that did not correspond with the nation’s history of suffering. He visualized the issue of patriarchy that the empire and people shared and emphasized the inner side of women resisting this system. On the other hand, Ha, Geun-chan directed readers’ attention through the issues of Korean people in Sakhalin, but this led to him facing a new reconstruction dilemma. The South Korean society of this era regarded Jeongshindae (Teisintai) as “comfort women” for the Japanese army and not enough accurate facts were known about this phenomenon; therefore, the memories of women who did not return to Korea remained almost blank. For this reason, Ha, Geun-chan imagined the past of women living in this era through movies and newspapers, and thus attempted to include the present time in the nationalized memory of South Korea. The author began writing this novel with the aim to present a critical mindset toward the schematism of colonial representation ended up with schematism of national narrative. Therefore, Wol-Rye-So-Jeon is a text recalling the forced female mobilization as a representative proof of national suffering and was created by postcolonial anti-communist states that lacked the memory and information of this.