廉想涉의 『眞珠는 주엇스나』 論

Abstract

This study aims to identify correlation among “money-knowledge- coloniality” in Yeom Sang-seop’s novel Though Gave the Pearl and analyze rebellious mechanism of colonial power, which Mr. Yeom intended to represent. Plus, by comparing and reviewing narrative contexts in the novel along with his next works, the study will grasp background for the need to call “socialists” as a player for realizing “justice” in his works after Though Gave the Pearl. As G. Simmel once argued, money is a medium not only for exchange but also for granting an order and hierarchy. Though Gave the Pearl describes how money makes a hierarchy from human relationships in the colonized Joseon from Simmel’s perspective. This novel depicts a conflict from Hyo-beom, a preparatory course student at Keijo Imperial University, and Jin Hyeong-seok, his brother-in law and vicious pro-Japanese lawyer who supports his tuition. In fact, characters from Keijo Imperial University frequently appear in Yeom Sang-seop’s works such as Mad Fury or Line of Discontinuity; this signifies that the author had a sensitive viewpoint for social position of the university. In this context, this thesis will analyze the narrative by a student at Keijo Imperial University, Hyo-beom, and study how Mr. Yeom’s awareness of the university overlaps with contemporary elite’s recognition. Further, rebellious narratives by Shin Yeong-bok, a newspaper reporter, who plays a role as a local narrator, will be read. By analyzing narratives by Hyo-beom and Yeong-bok, the study will identify reality of colonial Joseon where colleges and media as a forum of producing discourse are overwhelmed by money, and the author’s perspective to the reality. Finally, with focusing on the fact that there were nearly no results from resistance despite brilliant resistant efforts by two characters, the thesis aims to study the author’s narrative strategy to overcome aporia of being impossible to realize “justice” in the colonized Joseon. In other Yeom Sang-seop’s works, which were published after Though Gave the Pearl, such as Unsettled or Mad Fury, activists from Keijo Imperial University or “socialists” appear as people who ignite and carry out justice; this is a narrative grammar, which was designed by Yeom Sang-seop, to ensure a narrative to realize “justice” without any help from religious belief and transform the colonized Joseon, which was a barren land where anyone cannot resist, into a place for rehabilitation.