증언의 메타서사로서 김숨 소설 읽기 -『한 명』에서 『듣기 시간』까지-

Abstract

The purpose of this writing is to analyze the aspect and method of representation that had testimony as a medium targeting a series of novels, which addressed Japanese military ‘comfort women’ up to 『Listening Time』 after 『One Person』 by Kim Soom. While testimony is of the nature of historical fact or political utterance, it is the narrative act that dictates and records the memory of a witness. The testimony as the narrative is realized by the act of narration in which the historic event and substance (contents of delivery) dubbed Japanese military ‘comfort women’ are transferred from the testifier (sender) to the recipient who hears it. The testimony, which was stated orally by Japanese military ‘comfort women,’ is the utterance of the experience and memory in a witness by having the historical substance in ‘comfort women’ as the key. This oral testimony is made with testimony materials such as the recorded tapes, testimony books, or interview articles, namely, with the primary testimony narrative text through the process of making the narrative that summarizes and records it. The secondary testimony narrative text is what was made the narration through a method of reproducing a narrative genre such as a novel or a movie by having this primary text as the substance. The narrative text of testimony is also created as another narrative text by a reader, etc. who did read and saw the multilayered testimony texts including the oral testimony. What intensively shows the multilayered structure of these testimony narratives includes a series of novels that Kim Soom released after 2016. These novels from 『One Person』 to 『Listening Time』 are demonstrating the way it is multilaterally narrated the testimonies as a reader of a collection of testimonies for Japanese military ‘comfort women,’ as an author of a novel that dealt with the narrative of ‘comfort women,’ and as a listener of testimony. While ?One Person? composes the testimony into the contents of a novel, it leads the narration in a narrative way such as placing the utterance of the testimony itself on the surface of the novel. 『A Flowing Letter』 is making the narrative in a way of overwriting the contents, which were addressed in 『One Person』. Two testimonial novels titled 『The sublime is looking into me.』, 『Have you ever wished a soldier to become an angel?』 are what listened to the testimonies of the survivors firsthand and narrated them. 『Listening Time』, which was published recently, is covering the interview between a witness and an interviewer, and the process of describing it. These five novels are situated in the narrative text of the primary and secondary testimony, respectively, and simultaneously presents the aspect of a multilayered narrative text that crosses its boundary. In this process, Kim Soom’s novels reconstructs the process of testimony along with the historical event called Japanese military ‘comfort women,’ thereby functioning as the narrative text on testimony itself, that is, as the meta narrative of testimony. In this manner, Kim Soom’s novels are demonstrating the effect of empathy possessed by testimony in various narrative ways. It works dynamically for the narrative subject who reads and writes that of testimony, and resultingly makes it sympathize with and actively respond to the testimony. Following 『One Person』 that placed the utterances of numerous testimonies themselves in the content of a novel and the dimension of discourse with reading a collection of testimonies, the author Kim Soom is embodied the testimony through reading in the process of directly listening to their testimonies with meeting survivors as Japanese military ‘comfort women.’ Especially in the two novels subtitled the testimony book by Kim Bok-dong and Gil Won-ok, the empathy of testimony is activated the most. And 『Listening Time』 is recreating the whole process of testimony, the time of pain and displacement between the victim and the witness participant of being formed in the course of listening to the testimony, and the testimony itself as listening and writing that those things make. These narrative aspects in Kim Soom’s novels suggest the ‘embodiment of testimony,’ or the process of being deepened the empathy of testimony, and the dynamics of its narrative style.