김남주 시의 담론 고찰

Abstract

This is a study on whether poetic discourses of Kim Nam Ju from 1970's and 1980's can still be put in practice. The poetic subjects in the poems of Kim Nam Ju pursue the emancipation of the nation and the people. But a nationalism that identifies the North and the South Korean societies fails to incorporate the popularity that embodies the birth and growth of the people on the South Korean soil. Kim's discourses are grounded rather on the North than the South. His poems portray the Socialist prospects of the people of the North as well as the epics of their struggle. In this respect the poetry of Kim Nam Ju can be viewed as follows: first of all, his Socialist inclination that led him to disregard the differences between the systems of the North and the South failed him to secure material ground in the South and thus resulted in his poetry being rather idealistic. Secondly, his intransigent patriotic struggle stops short as a demagogy without concrete epics of the people becoming patriotic subjects, as a result of identifying different social classes in the South Korean society. The nationalism of Kim Nam Ju, therefore, is nothing more than an attempt to turn about the discourse of dominance despite that Kim ventures to deconstruct it by a discourse against the domination of Imperialism. Kim's nationalism fails to display the epic of post-colonialism deconstructing the discourse of dominance by independent subjects born out of the living conditions of the people of South Korea.