식민지 학교의 기억과 그 재현 - 하근찬의 경우 -

Abstract

Ha, Geun-chan's novels have drama- tically changed since 1970s, due to the Agreement between Korea and Japan in 1965. After this historical event he came to become suspicious about his ethnic identity, which he used to regard stable. At that time Ha, Geun-chan tried to reconstruct his ethnic and personal identity by presenting his youth memories of colonial school in various ways. In his novel, colonial school is shown as the place where the colonial distinction is structured. In this place the colonial rulers are distinguished in two types. While the ‘principal’ is described as a barbarous and inhuman character, the ‘female teacher’ as a bucolic and an favored one. In this place of memory, colonial boys are the main character and they soothe the colonial gap among them. The representation through ‘stereotype’ and ‘play’ was the device to release the pain of reminding such memories. On the other side, the novel of Ha, Geun-chan represent the memory of liberation as ironic experiences. This means that the memory of liberation can be interpreted in various ways by the nation or people that have been liberated from the colonial condition. In this regard, in his novels he tends to represent the same memory in different ways. Then, after, he tries to solve the unstable identities of a nation and people after colonialism. To do this he put his ‘father’ in front in the novel as one of the inspiring factors against the colonial system.