해방기 소설에 나타난 성매매 여성의 재현 양상과 갱생의 의미

Abstract

This writing investigated aspects of representation and meaning of rehabilitation of prostituted women appearing in novels during the liberation period. Many prostituted women such as prostitute, Gisaeng, concubine, waitress, barmaid, and Yangkongju are reproduced in novels during the liberation period. The basic cause why they unavoidably had to sell sex was the hardships of life but the ins and outs of their selling sex were varied as much as their strange fates. Meantime, circumstances were set up that prostituted women who were forced to sell sex by men were successful in rehabilitation without exception and lived their new lives while women who voluntarily selected prostitution lived their lives inertly. They had not only desire for salvation but also will of rehabilitation and all of them had helpers in common. This means that it was impossible for them to reach rehabilitation and salvage in their own strength during reality in the liberation period. In this respect, through women who were successful in rehabilitation, novels during the liberation period paradoxically shows universal aspect of most impossible rehabilitation in reality. In particular, prostituted women under pressure existed as victims by patriarchal men and as allegory of tragedy of nation occupied by Japanese force. Therefore, liberation from reality of forced prostitution means not only 'liberation' from Japanese imperialism but also 'liberation' from patriarchal authority and institutional oppression. That is why this period was the only time when stories of many women who succeeded in their escape from prostitution during the liberation period were intensively made into works.