나혜석 · 딩링 · 히라츠카 라이초우의 ‘모성’인식 비교 고찰

Abstract

The present study examines the life of female theorists Na Hye-seok, Dingling, and Hiratsuka Raichou, who represent the three modern East Asian countries (Korea, China, and Japan), and examines and contrasts their maternity-related articles published during their pregnancy and childbirth. Women in these three countries have been living in a socio-cultural environment in which they were restrained by the political and economic conditions of colonization, anti-colonization, and imperialism. Their lives under such circumstances would have also posed influences as tradition and modernity intersected. Therefore, it can be said that the perception of the three women in this study, especially in regards to maternity, was influenced by the political and economic factors as well as the socio-cultural environment created by the changes in the modern era. The choices given to the ‘women’ simultaneously reveals the limitations and possibilities of modernity. Due to the connection between seemingly natural birth-giving, the ability to feed, and the responsibility for childcare, and, due to the extensive care and protection required for the children, women’s motherhood seems to be considered very natural. Thus, the motherhood of women is regarded as one of the few universal and ongoing elements of gender division in labor, making it appear that women’s ‘place’ of being is prescribed ‘naturally’. However, Na Hye-seok and Hiratsuka, who possessed ego as the product of modernity, accepted this motherhood as fetters, or a dilemma. While Na Hye-seok was a woman with a strong self-consciousness, she was not in a position to shake off her bonds in a social way. Because of this, she wrote to expect responses from other Korean women in a similar position. Her progress stopped after she received refutation only from men. Hiratsuka engaged in discussions in a context wherein Japanese women, who had previously expressed their impressions on becoming mothers, already existed. Hiratsuka fully embraced the concept of “motherhood.” She mentioned the ‘state’ as the subject to resolve the real problems of women who accepted motherhood, and further advocated the protection of maternity by the state. Dingling had no place to suffer conflicts of ego and maternity, as her mother Yu Man Zhen, who had already had a child, found her ego after her husband’s death. Yu Man Zhen, a woman who has to protect her existing children, strived to contribute to the building of ‘China’ as she did not want their children to become a ruined people. She also mentioned she would never lag behind men, just like Qiu Jin, who had joined the revolution earlier. Dingling's mother, Yu Man Zhen, often told Dingling the stories of Qiu Jin, and was an admirer of Wu Zetian. To her, motherhood was not a personal burden, nor were her children an object to grow up in a modern family.