언어의 제국과 번역의 경제 ─염상섭의 「해방의 아들」과 「양과자갑」을 중심으로─

Abstract

This study investigates Yeom, Sang-Seop's ethnic nationalism and the process he overcomes it with his pieces, The Son of Independence and The Box for European Treats. This study looks into the connection between the change in his perspective with the rise and fall of the linguistic empire. For example, The Son of Independence, facing the fall of the Japanese linguistic empire, illustrates its mixed-blood character Jo Joon shik as an ethnic Korean. In contrast, The Box for European Treats, in reaction to the rise of new American empire, implies nationalism no longer holds as an effective resistance of the empire. It illustrates with its English-writing character that the postcolonial truer independence can be achieved at the border between Korean and English. While The Son of Independence shows the limit of ethnic nationalism, The Box for European Treats marks the possibility of postcolonial independence more meaningful than a mere exclusive community with the English-writing character resisting to the linguistic Empire.