월남 여성 작가 박순녀의 소설 속 배회하는 여성의 표상

Abstract

This study examined the meaning of violence against women in a patriarchal society by focusing on the story of a wandering woman in novels by Sun-nyeo Park. The woman protagonist experiences a sense of alienation while wandering in the south over the 38 (the pre-Korean War boundary between North and South Korea), as narrated in different stories like “I love you,” “A beggar in South Korea,” “Mansae Bridge,” “Practice for going home,” “A king’s ear,” “Happy at our young age,” and others. The journey represents thresholds for both growth and corruption and downfall, especially in “The reason why she lives far away,” “Diary of a hug,” and “Mansae Bridge.” In Park’s novels, the southward wanderer is described as a stranger who is both extraneous to and a critic of her society, crossing streets and borders rather than choosing a dwelling and settling in the here and now. In “A beggar of South Korea,” “Happy at our young age,” and “The reason why she lives far away,” which describe the woman’s emigration to America, the heroine provides a commentary on the resistance to the rule of the patriarchy by adopting a negative identity, like that of a prostitute. In addition, a woman’s wandering alone is in a sign of resistance to a patriarchal society, showing her intention to pursue freedom and love and enjoy fascinating experiences and her own body. In “A king’s ear,” “I love you,” and “A woman took off gloves,” the wandering woman provides further commentary and resistance efforts with her performance and negative identity as a corrupted woman, happily desirous of product consumption and of the violation of taboos on chattering and laughter.