내면화된 폭력과 서사의 분열－이문구의 『장한몽』

Abstract

The central theme of this paper is the violence in “Janghanmong” written by Lee, Mun-gu. In “Janghanmong”, we can find all the peculiarities of Lee’s early novels which are apparently different from his later novels. In his later novels, the reality of the rural community was captured with the excellency of humorous style, while his early novels are dominated by the problems of the city and the violence. In this sense, the novel “Janghanmong” can be viewed as the turning point of his literature. The features of the violence in “Janghanmong” is closely related both to the personal history of the author and to the recent history of the Korean society. In this novel, both kinds of violence are described together: the public violence done by the country and the social system, and the private violence done by the individuals. The point is that these two are not divided. The agreement or the rational procedure, which are the basic foundation of the public violence, had been disregarded so that the public violence bore the same property of the private violence done after the private enmity and interest. In this situation, the principles and the social norms have no power and the individuals excluded from the system internalize the violence in themselves. In this society, the private violence are entangled with the public violence and they altogether form a chain of the violences, which was one of the crucial problems in the recent history of Korean society. “Janghanmong” exceedingly captured this problem of the distorted individuals produced by the society void of the rational public violence. In his later novels, Lee, Mun-gu leaves the city and go to the society of the rural area and the labour, by which remove the violence in his novels. The personal career which were damaged by the public violence was the source of the problem of the violence dominating his early novels. The scars were so deep that he could not but look for the alternatives in the rural life and the labour.