채만식(蔡萬植)의 『沈봉사』 4부작 고찰

Abstract

Chae, Man-shik (1902-1950), from 1936 until 1949, wrote four The Blind Shim(沈봉사), two novels and two dramas. These works parodied A Korean classic, Life of Shim-Chung(심청전). The aims of this paper are to examine how the four The Blind Shim accommodated the classic novel, and to search author Chae’s subjectivity establishment. Two novels were serialized in magazines and were suspended, two dramas were completed just as 7 acts and 3 acts. In the denouement of these dramas, ‘The Blind Shim’ restored eyesight. But he poked in his eye with his fingers himself, and again back to the blind. The causes of ‘himself-harm’ are following two : one is an ethical shamefulness(羞惡之心) from the daughter's sacrifice, the other is an expression of irony for a generational disconnection. The former is related to the author-consciousness, and the latter is related to the social history of the first half of the 20th century, in Korea. Chae, Man-shik had a lot of interest in the subjectivity establishment, and as a writer he wrote the works dealing with it. The four The Blind Shim reveals the most bitterly the severity of the problem.