이상 소설 「지도의 암실」연구

Abstract

Yi-Sang's novel “The dark room of the map” has been evaluated as a complicated text that is inconsistent and difficult to understand. This study sought to explore this notorious work as a comprehensible novel. This approach to the text reveals that the novel is the result of Yi-Sang’s self-consciousness, which he tried to confront in reality from the two standpoints of “time” and “space.” In particular, this study confirms that the Chinese sentences embedded in the novel and the “map” that allows the main character to walk with his fingers were closely related to the Shanghai-incident (上海事變) that broke out in 1932 when the novel was published. It becomes clear that the time and space in this novel are not abstract, but distinctly “real.” The main character of this novel is living the time for himself by turning the “lamp” on and off regardless of the “modern time” symbolized by the clock or the calendar. He tells himself that he wants to resist this “time” without going backwards, and lives in a different way to “K,” who lives an ordinary life as his other self. His life pattern, which follows the rhythm of his turning on and off of the lamp, makes the time of the novel seem intricate, but this is inevitable, given his desire to resist the negative time of reality. In terms of space, the plot of this novel follows the main character waking up at 10 am on a holiday, leaving his house, returning home, and falling asleep at 4 am. This study confirmed that he went to a mountain, a zoo, the main street, a department store, a theater, restaurants, and so on. However, he considers the city's downtown as a graveyard, and is constantly attempting to die in it. This is because he regards the world in which he lives as a dead end. Thus, he was walking in the darkroom , but must have been holding the map. This is important because the map that he holds is made of some dark pieces of “reality.” Perhaps he may not be able to return to reality, but that is because there is a meaning of life there that he goes deep into the space of “writing,” as he attempts a dangerous adventure. There is also a reason that Yi-Sang's novel “The dark room of the map” cannot be left as an unreadable text.