최인훈의『벽공무한』론에 대하여

Abstract

This paper is written as a part of process of organizing Choi Inhun’s criticism. It specifically aims at dealing with “Aesthetic structure-on Lee Hyoseok ①” and “Both inside and outside of the entertaining novel-on Lee Hyoseok ②,” the analyses of Lee Hyoseok’s novel Byeokgongmuhan(Endless Blue Sky). It may be inferred that Choi wrote these articles between late 1960s and early 1970s. Nobody but Choi had analyzed Byeokgongmuhan systematically until early 1970s. However the researchers of Lee Hyoseok’s fictions have not paid any attention to these articles. There are couple of important literary meanings in these articles. I think these articles are to be estimated to be hidden examples, letting us to know how literary works of Lee Hyoseok were understood 1960’s. These are also examples of showing us Choi Inhun’s method of reading literary works and its practical examples, letting us to know how he read literary works of his senior writers. I intended to read these articles carefully and confirm how he read, understood and estimated Byeokgongmuhan. In his articles Choi suggests his methodological, theoretical foundation of reading(character-type, plot-type, style-type) and analyzes Byeokgongmuhan upon it. Choi estimates Byeokgongmuhan as a failure, in difference to “Memilkkot Pil Muryeop”(When Bucketwheet Flowers Blossom), though both are love stories. There are some structural reasons why Byeokgongmuhan inevitably failed; Modernization process of Korea was distorted, the urban lifestyle was not well rooted and the city-background novels largely failed. Furthermore it was impossible to have a critical look at the reality and depict it in the 1940s. In this respect the failure of Byeokgongmuhan came from the limitations of period itself. In the 1960s, just as in the 1940s freedom was not given. In this sense, Choi’s articles are thought to be an indirect criticism on the 1960s.