비극적 실존을 구현하는 북한문학의 ‘력사주제작품’ 『높새바람』(홍석중) 연구

Abstract

This article provides the insight into the “tragic existence” realized by A Northeasterly Wind (Hong Seok-jung) read throughout the two Koreas. This novel has a tragic story in which all the positive heroes suffer a painful struggle with the foreign powers and exploiters who caused the Sampo Invasion and die in the end. However, the North Korean critics have never called this novel a “revolutionary tragedy.” This is because the positive heroes, including Nop-soe, show the limit of being unable to “consciously” participate in the “immortal socio-political life” because of “the limitation of the time.” However, because of the limitation, which cannot be a “conscious” revolutionary tragedy, A Northeasterly Wind richly embodies the “unconscious”, blind, and predictive fatalism of them. In addition, the “musicality” of popular lyrics and aristocrat poetry of the time inspires readers further. This is why this article pay attention to the descriptive style of novel language containing these characteristics. A Northeasterly Wind does not contradict the literary discourse that governs Juche literature entirely. This is because it faithfully follows the conscious rationale of rejecting foreign powers as a “History-themed Novel” of North Korean literature at the level of macroscopic plot. Nevertheless, there are two main points in which this article provides the special insight into the novel. The first point is that this novel portrays the unconscious, blind, and predictive human innerness that sensitively escapes from the conscious rationale of Juche literature while embodying it though. This could mean that the “unconsciousness” like this can exist even in the “consciousness” of the Juche idea of ​​North Koreans. The second point is that this “unconsciousness” can embody Nietzsche’s “tragic existence” in a stylistic dimension that inserts countless poems being intoxicated with fantastic descriptive styles. These actually mean that the criticism of North Korean literature should often greatly exceed the conceptual category of the literary trend and genre used by the North Korean critics. It is a new research for the “diversity” of Juche literature.