1950년대 孫昌涉 소설의 家族 공동체 연구

Abstract

Son Chang-seop's novels from the 1950's contain clear depictions of the era's familial disintegration as well as reconstruction. Families in 1950's Korea were reduced to the role of lackeys for the state as they were primary means of enforcing obedience to those in power; they lacked a healthy community consciousness. Totalitarianism, effacement of individuality, and destruction of otherness are common themes in Son’s works from this period. Son Chang-seop depicts families forcing one another to unconditionally obey the dictates of power, crushed as they are by the logic of survival. Individuals are sacrificed to the collective logic with the family as its fundamental unit. However, Son also depicts an alliance of outsiders crossing familial and institutional lines as an alternative familial model. This study analyzes the rejection of family-centric collectivism in Son's novels and the process by which an alternative family structure was proposed. The basis of solidarity is self-awareness of death's inevitability. Because death is the common destiny of all, it cannot become the basis for exclusion. Instead, it offers a chance for humble acceptance and understanding of others’ lives. A common narrative found in Son Chang-seop's novels from the 1950's is that the dignity of others can be discovered through death. Rituals such as ‘funerals’ manifest as symbolic events fostering solidarity with others through which a new form of community can be created. This new community can be called a "family community" which performs all familial functions in stark contrast to regular families beholden to blood ties and the societal system.