4.19라는 컨텍스트 혹은 통일론의 영도 -이호철의 「판문점」(1961) 다시 읽기

Abstract

This article is an attempt to re-visit the meaning of Lee Ho-cheol’s “Panmunjeom” through placing the text consciously in the middle of the social and political context of the time. Right after 4.19 revolution, the context can be summarized by the rise of the unification discourse and inter-Korean exchange and cooperation issue. The conclusions reached by this article considering the social and political context are in the following two points. First, 「Panmunjeom」 is a text that strategically represents the genuine possibility of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, in which South and North “shake up” each other through their meeting and further “infect” each other with their own heterogeneity. This strategic representation would be the result of Lee Ho-cheol’s awareness of his dangerous identity as a writer who came from North. Second, the main idea of 「Panmunjom」 is not to assert the qualitative superiority of either the southern concept of ‘(passive) freedom’ or the northern concept of ‘(positive) liberty’. Rather, it was intended to represent the “political freedom” in which different views on freedom/liberty can be openly spoken and compete with each other. The key point of political freedom boils down to the pluralism or multiplicity. It is also important to note that the place where this political freedom came to realize was at Panmunjom, which was nothing more than a taboo space in South Korea at the time. Without 4.19 revolution, a political victory for citizens, and the widespread uplift of the concept of ‘freedom’, such a changed representation of Panmunjom would never have been possible. In the history of Korean literature, Choi In-hoon’s 「The Square」(1960.11) was an literary appropriation of the ‘neutralized unification’ issue, which was particularly heightened during the 4.19 period, whereas Lee Ho-cheol’s 「Panmunjeom」 published in March 1961 corresponds to another unification discourse in this phase. It was a literary response in a timely manner to the discourse of ‘the inter-Korean negotiations’ or ‘the inter-Korean exchanges’ in a broader sense.