"Literature as Symptoms": Three Short Stories of Yi Chungjun and the Order of Discourse in the mid-1980s in Korea

Abstract

Yi Chungjun is known as a prolific writer who wrote many works until his death. So, it may appear strange that he wrote only a few works in the 1980s. Three short stories, “Beolrae Iyagi” (The Tale of Bug), “Sumeun Songarak” (Hidden Finger), and “Nugeundeul chojangbuteo kkuneuro taeeonarya?” (Can Anyone Be Born an Expert?) were written during this time. More precisely, these stories were written during the difficult period between the May 18 Gwangju Incident and the June Democratic Struggle. At this time, the new military regime established a strange order of discourse that did not permit people to either criticize or forgive the rulers’ hypocrisy. Under this order of discourse, the ruling powers could distort people’s criticism into a justification of their rule. Thus, they also had no need of people’s forgiveness. As a means to overcome this discursive situation, Yi Chungjun aimed to write literature as symptoms. He distinguished between literature for alibis and literature as symptoms. The former can only represent the past. However, a novelist writing the latter analyses social conditions in historical context first and reveals contemporary features as a consequence. Thus an analysis of contemporary events is allegorically performed through discussion of past events. For example, the case of Yi Yunsang’s kidnapping in 1980 is alluded to in “The Tale of Bug” (1985), and the time setting for “Hidden Finger” (1985) is the Korean War of the 1950s. However, these short stories are not mere representations of past events. Although they seem to be just interesting stories, they embrace intensively political features. This is because literature as symptoms intervenes in contemporary problems through the methodology of allegory.