황석영의 분단소설 연구

Abstract

Suk Young Hwang was interested in the division of Korea since the early years of his profession as a novelist. It was because the division suppressed and controlled both the democratism of the Korean society and his freedom as an individual. In a series of novels including 「The Chronicles of Mr. Han」, which made a big hit in the 1970s, Hwang vividly depicted the tragedies and constraints caused by the Korean War and the division of Korea. In his 『Shadow of Weaponry』 from the early 1990s, he depicted that the Vietnam War was a conspiracy plotted by the U.S. in an attempt to reorganize the world order to clarify the cause of Korea's division. In 『An Old Garden』 and 『The Guest』, he was in search of possible ways to overcome the division. 「The Chronicles of Mr. Han」 depicts how a stubborn yet honest character named Young Duk Han is led to destruction of life through the Korean War and the division of Korea. Han's death stresses that it is not a problem of an individual, but a problem of the society to discuss various problems caused by the division. 『Shadow of Weaponry』 talks about the Vietnam War to describe dominance of the powers and realities of the ruled. The U.S., the world's greatest power, deployed the logic of capital dominance over Asia for perpetual colonization. Hwang insists that this logic was applied to the division of the Korean Peninsula. 『An Old Garden』 depicts the commoners' understanding of the fact that the division of Korea and the foreign powers are the causes of their troubled lives and attempts to eliminate these causes. The novel tells that the causes are not eliminated by a few frontiers, but only by the passion and collaboration of the commoners. It stresses that the commoners who make efforts to lead their lives in the most desirable way would make the society abundant as a whole. 『The Guest』 proposes that the truthful confession of those who experienced the massacre and their efforts to live together in symbiosis would be the way to treating and reconciling the wounds of the Sincheon Massacre, an event caused by the division. The truthful confession of those who killed and those who were victimized proposed a new way of reconciliation that had not been found in any novel on the division in Korea. The stories of the deceased encourage the living to confess what is buried deep inside their hearts to communicate the truths about the massacre and reconcile with others who survived. Hwang Suk Young believes that the division of Korea is the root cause of violence and irrationality not only in personal lives but also throughout the society. In order to further this view to overcome the division and expedite the reunification process, it is important to realize that the division of Korea is an unsolved problem of the world that stretches beyond the Korean Peninsula.