감옥 속의 똥: 비천‘화’된 자들은 어떻게 응수하는가 -김동인의 「태형」 등 식민지시기 감옥서사를 중심으로

Abstract

This thesis examines Korean novels set in prison during the Japanese colonial period and explores how prisoners who have been mistreated by the inhumane superiority degraded them in prison responded towards the power. Feces, or dung is a representation of hatred. During the colonial period, the method of disposing of excrement was very unwell, and the density of population was surprisingly high, so it was a place symbolizing strong hate against “Josenjing(조선인)” prisoners. The imprisoned were reduced to something between human and animal through numerous metaphor and metonymy, which was intentionally done by the imperialist executioners. Internalizing discrimination through this daily propaganda using this strong hate, by demeaning certain objects and combining them with certain prisoners is historically proven art of domination, and was also used during the Japanese colonial period. However, the given novels show the prisoners react quite differently from the expectations of the colonialists. “Water!”, by Kim Nam-cheon, presents the inhumane situation where the main character is being forced to defecate in front of the others. He rather tries to display the physical homogeneity and equality that every human is a ‘pooping being’ and moves forward for solidarity. In addition, death and corpse, the other object of disgust and hate, are also not degraded and underrated, due to the tragic situation of unfair and noble death. The old man in “Hymn”, by Shim Hoon, was tortured as a instigator of the March 1st Independence Movement and died because he was even refused for a doctor’s visit. The Japanese colonialists, drunk with pride that they have built civilization in primitive Korean peninsula, ironically faces the product of counter-civilization and unfair death due to their ruling. Thus, this unjust death leads to anger, or even a combination of anger and guilt to Koreans. “Hymn” tries to build the national solidarity through this anger and through the sublime created by almost eliminating the description of the prison pain symbolized by dung. Taehyung(flogging), by Kim Dong-in, accurately portrays the image of human suffrage in a pile of dung and harsh reality of the suffering that prisoners had to face. Unlike “Hymn”, the awakening that the responsibility of the death lies with the speaker is impressive, and sympathy was formed from shifting apathy to guilt. In these three novels, the human beings who were objectified for debasement eventually overturn the dominant idea and use it as their own symbolic capital. In addition, the colonialism itself assures that civilization stands on the existence of counter-civilized movement, such as torturing, throwing humans into a pile of dung, whipping, and even refusing to provide medical treatments. On the other hand, Lee Kwang-soo’s “Mumyung(Avidy)” portrays fellow Koreans as uncivilized beasts who do not appreciate the modernization done by the Japanese, and belong to the lower hierarchy than the narrator. This expands to the link between animal’s mouth and asshole, debasing not only poop but also rice, the valuable source of food for Koreans. Prisoner’s death is also resulted from his own folly of not following the doctor’s recommendation and eating way too much, creating no sympathy or compassion. This low-life is a mere barbarian who lacks civilized knowledge and died only because he did not accept even the basic scientific facts according to the narrator of the novel. Soon, Lee Kwang-soo approved the Japanese imperialism and further, proclaims fellow Koreans as the savage minority of civilization by projecting inferior beastly image. This paper also raises objection to the preexisting interpretation of “Taehyung”. In the end, sentencing 90 lashes for an elderly in his 70s was not allowed in the legal system of Joseon, the so-called ‘civilized’ Japanese decree. This overt exaggeration creates a sense of guilt in the narrator who drove the 70-year-old man to death, while maximizing his antipathy to colonial power. The first-person narrator shows the sympathetic tears from the guilt of neglecting the death of an old man, which is in stark contrast to the apathy towards the suffering of others that all prisoners have shown before. Interpretation of this work should be focused on the sharp contrast between the ending of this work and the narrative up to the ending. To point out, when the guilt was created through dramatic exaggeration at the end of the novel and the cold antipathy towards the demeaning power are put together, the thesis proves that the key to this work is to form a “sympathetic-field” between low-lives.