윤동주 시의 세계 이해-‘밤’과 ‘성찰’의 연관성을 중심으로

Abstract

Poems by Yun Dong-ju have long been interpreted in the context of ‘poem of resistance’ that has ethnic characteristics or ‘lyric poem’ that reflects inner side of ego. For readers, the name Yun Dong-ju has been regarded as the symbol of resistance poem or lyric poem. His poems deal with poverty and grief under the colonial government. The religious integrity on the sense of shame and belief that originates from this kind of poverty and grief was seen as the classic of modern lyric poem. Despite the recent reinterpretation on Yun’s literature from diverse contexts which grow out of the framework of ‘ethnicity’, the appearance of utterance in his poems is still being understood as the core of lyric poem. This paper attempts to elucidate the lyricism of Yun’s poem by focusing on ‘night’ and ‘confession.’ Not only the poetic word ‘night’ is directly expressed in Yun’s poem, but also the time setting of Yun’s poems is ‘night’ in many cases. A number of previous studies interpreted the ‘night’ as an image that indicates negative perception on reality or pessimistic world view, similar to ‘darkness.’ However, ‘night’ in Yun’s poem cannot be simplified as an allegory that involves the colonial situation. In particular, ‘night’ appears as an experience that makes relaxation of human being impossible, rather than simple term that symbolizes time, in the pieces written after 1939 when he seriously began to write poems growing out of the world of ‘children’s poem.’ In other words, ‘night’ appears as a trigger that necessitates poem-writing for him. ‘Night’ in Yun’s poem is always sleepless night where he wakes up at midnight or cannot fall asleep. Besides, Yun’s poem can be seen as a response from the speaker upon the arrival of this ‘night.’ This paper attempts to give a new interpretation to 「Another home」, which has been at the center of controversy due to interpretational diversity, in addition to two pieces of prose (「Shoot the moon」 and 「Where shooting stars fell」) that did not receive much attention so far. As our experience proves, ‘night’ is related to private and deep part of human being. In a sense that it covers the time that is not under the rule of light, ‘night’ is a time of sensitivity rather than rationality as well as a time of resting rather than working. Meanwhile, ‘night’ was also a time of reflection and confession to Yun. This means that his writing begins when ‘night’ comes and that ‘poem’ was his action of reflection and confession. As such, ‘night’ and ‘poem’ and the lyric poetic confession and reflection are naturally linked for Yun. Most of all, ‘night’ was the time for confession and reflection and, in that sense, it was also the time of ‘poem.’