한국전쟁기 장편소설 <영원히 사는 것>의 작가의식 연구

Abstract

A Study on the Author Consciousness ofLiving Forever, a Korean War NovelKim Gyo BongLiving Forever is a war novel published in the local newspaper, Taegu Meil, during the Korean War(1951.9.1.­12.8.). This novel contains a broad knowledge and information about Korean War, via the author’s experiences, witnessing the tragic aspects of the war from the beginning till the armistice. It shows a meaningful thematic development in the author’s insight, changing from the viewpoint of the victims, to that of a harmers, finally to that of life priority theory.Life priority theory figured as a way to overcome the war in the novel, however, is weakened, since it compromises with popularity, for the sake of the newspaper company. The consideration about popularity in the novel shows rapid changes into panoramic situations without the characters’ deep insights, resulting in lots of contingent events which do not coincide with the characters and the situations. Consequently, the novel fails to develope into a significant insight in the Korean War, resulting in the thematic wandering of the novel. The novel presents questions of both the way to adequately combine real facts with fiction and of the reconciliation with popularity. This question leads to the literary introspection about how to texture various documents and witnesses about the Korean War with literary imagination.