해방공간, 장덕조 소설의 젠더화된 인식 고찰 -장편소설 『十字路』를 중심으로-

Abstract

Jang Deok-jo’s feature-length novel Crossroads offers a dynamic and macroscopic view of the new social system and the process of its establishment during the late 1940s post-liberation era. In this paper, we studied the image of women in Crossroads, focusing on gender explorations inherently found during the time of turbulence . When it comes to the works of Jang, attempts to perform an in-depth analysis on her literary characteristics have been limited due to lack of research materials. Thus, we sought the author’s feature-length novel Crossroads and focused on exploring perceptions of gender in the post-liberation era, a topic that was heretofore relatively undiscussed in relation to her works. In addition, we aimed to examine the sensitivity and sensibility of gender perceptions, as well as motherhood in Jang’s post-liberation literature, and identify their hidden or transformed aspects. Thus, we attempted to illustrate the narrativization of fluidity in the female gender and ultimately expand the topography of Korea’s post-liberation literature. First, “sensitivity” was expressed in the process of traversing beyond a space where subjectivity was denied to actively implement one’s thoughts, including “choice” and “self-determination.” Second, “sensibility” based on the other’s desire was observed in the sexual consciousness of the alienated class of the post-liberation period such as Oh Eun-hee, Kang Myung-ja, and Hwang Geum-ju. Third, the “motherhood” expressed in Crossroads consists of motherhood as metaphor and motherhood as a principle of behavior, which converges into a new positioning for women. The wide spectrum encompassing the persistence of gender perspectives and their variations, the dynamics within the system, and the exclusion and inclusion between power systems provide the basis for understanding the gender characteristics of Jang’s post-liberation literature. This can be viewed as the implicating process of the complex gender politics that led to changes in gender perceptions in the post-liberation period. Additionally, it offers an objective look at the gender perspectives of the time in terms of its cultural, social, and political particularities.