심훈의 장편소설 『상록수』 연구 ―계몽과 탈선의 의미화: 집짓기 모티브를 중심으로

Abstract

The discussions about Sangnoksu(Evergreen) by Shim Hun have so far remained within the conceptual framework of rural or enlightenment novels related to the V narod movement(1931～1934) in the 1930s. Even the studies that empirically discussed the novel's external relations with the characters with a focus on the actual models(Choi Yong-shin and Shim Jae-yeong) were based on those achievements. It was also pointed out that the novel focused on the devoted enlightenment efforts and romantic dating of the main characters, Chae Yeong-shin and Park Dong-hyeok, and accordingly was not free from the popular nature of serial story in newspapers. Those discussions have converged into the possibilities and limitations as a farmers' novel and the results as an enlightenment novel. Resistance consciousness inherent in the novel, however, has not attracted enough attention from the researchers due to the optimistic perspective found in the novel. When attention is paid to the process of Park Dong-hyeok's rural movement being transformed into the Rural Revitalization Campaign(RRC) by the ruling Japanese, will for resistance and directionality is revealed rather strongly with the resistance discourse hidden in the work. It is because the conflicts and collapses in the novel are attributed to the clash between the local organization of the ruling Japanese and the farmers' organization of rural areas. In the novel, homes(centers for farmers and schools) are the places to uplift the ideology of rural movement and practice a community life, which is why Park Dong-heok builds a center for farmers after returning to Hangok-ri and Chae Yeong-shin builds a school after returning to Cheongseokgol. The two main characters' commitment and sacrifice is embodied in house building with the direction of resistance against oppression proposed through house keeping. Park is put in prison in the process of his center for farmers built with his farmer friends being changed into an RRC center due to the plot of Kang Gi-cheon. Chae is also put in jail while raising funds to build a school. Those episodes indicate that the ruling Japanese were controlling the rural communities including even the remote villages by forming an RRC, a semi-administrative organization, to maintain their exploitation system. It also has something to do with the death from overwork of Chae that was devoted to house building, trying to overcome the hardship. Before her death, she left a will on house keeping because a house was a base for the resistance movement. Park's return to house(center for farmers) implies broad resistance through the reorganization of farmers' organizations that had been extinct or absorbed into RRC by the ruling Japanese.