오에 겐자부로(大江健三郎)의 ‘전후문학’ 언설과 ‘전후일본’ 표상 연구 ─『내가 정말로 젊었을 적에』와 80년대 글을 중심으로―

Abstract

This study diachronically reviews what “postwar literature” meant to Kenzaburo Oe in his major writings before the 1980s and examines the context of his re-mentioning of “postwar literature” in the 1980s. The article considers The Time that I Was Really Young (1992) as the fulfillment of his mission as the successor of “postwar literature,” as well as his representation of nationalism in the 1980s in the form of a novel. It interprets this aspect afresh from the point of view of memory and war responsibility. In the latter half of the 80s, Oe regarded the 40 years after the war as a process during which writers and readers were all losing their "positive attitude," and assessed that the unique position of Japan's postwar literature was disappearing. One of the “reality” of the time that he mentioned repeatedly in his writings was the memory of "Japan's aggression on Asia" and the atmosphere of revival of nationalism surrounding the description of history. Oe’s recall of postwar literature was the result of a consciousness of crisis while looking at the same period with the “eschatological vision” and “revelationary perception” of postwar authors from the previous generation. It could also be an urgent warning to reawaken the social responsibility of contemporary literature, including his own. His novel The Time that I Was Really Young, in which he adopted the memory of the Asia-Pacific War as material again several years after his warning, was the outcome of his consciousness of crisis, which was triggered by the "self-justifying nationalism of Japan" and his mission as a literary man.