냉전 체제를 사유하는 방식 - 최인훈의 『총독의 소리』를 중심으로

Abstract

Works of Choi, In-hun, mobilizing words such as ‘diaspora’ ‘division’ and ‘evacuation,’ have shown how the lives of individuals depend on political ages. Based on the artistic pace sensitive to the political climate, rapid fluctuations of domestic and foreign affairs between the late 1960s and early 1970s seemed to significantly affect his later works. In this context, this article tries to investigate Choi, In-hun’s series of novel, The Voice of the Governor General, as a way of reasoning and corresponding to the Cold War. The Voice of the Governor General was released from 1967 to 1976, and is closely related to the changes in Korea at the time. Part 1 is a response to treaty between Korea and Japan, and Part 2 deals with military security and relationship with North Korea, in conjunction with penetration of armed communist guerrilla and USS Pueblo hijacking in 21st January, 1968. Part3 is about Nobel Prize winning of Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, seeing the world system as nationalism. On the other hand, Part4, published in 1976, tries to interpret international fluctuations due to the détente, and the political issues of the joint communique of 4 July 1972 between the South and the North of Korea. However, for détente phase, reconciliation of China and U.S., and the joint communique all occurred in 1972, Part4 of The Voice of the Governor General has a time difference as in responding to political issues, compared to previous parts. Thus it is necessary to interpret Part 4, calling the South and the North as the subject and requesting self-reliance, in terms of the writer’s stay in United States and the end of Vietnam War. Staying from 1973 to 1976, the writer discovered a Janus-faced America, applying different standards to other countries from its own. In addition, America’s response to the Vietnam War shows nationalism operated only to prevent its own citizens. This ambivalent attitude of the United States the writer found, in conjunction with the confusing situations of Korean peninsula due to the Nixon Doctrine, leads him to have a schizophrenic self, calling for dependence on and independence from U.S. at the same time. U.S-leading Asian reconciliation mode is distorted as a tense situation of Korea by Park, Chung-hee regime and leads to a Yushin(reformation) proclamation. Choi, establishing a literary response in the US, came back to Korea, proving that Part 4 of The Sound of the Governor General is a corresponding response. The novel has a unique structure, highlighting the text communication structure of the ‘speaker’ and the ‘audience.’ The format of the sound broadcasting substitutes the Governor General, subject of Locution, and have various voices. In particular, we have to pay attention to the presence of the poet, having rather been ignored previously. The Poet, who is overlapped with the writer, has responsibility to build new words. Therefore, The Voice of the Governor General, on one hand, has theme which politics around Korean peninsula in Cold War and détente, and on the other hand, has politics of esthetics by exceptional composition of languages and forms.