고은 초기 시에 나타난 기독교적 특징 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of Christianity found in Ko Un’s early poems created in the 1960’s. Ko Un’s early works are mainly focused on the pursuit of extinction and death, estheticism, or tragedy. But among his early works, this author pays attention to Christian images distinctly found in his works taking an incest composition. First of all, this study analyzes one of his representative works, 「Tuberculosis」, and 「Sachi」 of which text is associated with 「Tuberculosis」 in terms of Christian images and characteristics. It has been found that he borrows Christian images which are distinctive in his text set with a composition of consanguineous love as in ‘The Sister and I’ or ‘The Sister-in-law and I’ letting us think of taboo or violation, original sin, or a sense of guilt, and with that, he gives effects on elevating tragedy within his works. In particular, about the meaning of the sister’s death manifested in 「Sachi」, this author sees that it discontinues the poetic speaker’s sense of guilt and works as punishment and catharsis that lead him to reach self-forgiveness and condolences. Aside from this, he also often adopts Christian images and poetic words in his 3rd poem collection and his long poem, 「Death Penalty」, as well. Particularly in the long poem, 「Death Penalty」, he describes Jesus’ death with the process of sentencing and executing a death penalty, and with this, we can see the poet’s intention to show Jesus’ pain and agony as a human objectively in the existential perspective, not his divine aspects. Although there has been advanced research analyzing Ko Un’s poetic world with regard to Zen poems or Buddhistic view to the world, this study is significant in that it has attempted to investigate it mainly around Christian characteristics and images for the first time.