월남 작가의 정체성, 그 존재태로서의 전유 - 황순원의 해방기 및 전시기 소설 일고찰

Abstract

In this paper the fictions written by Whang Soon-won during the Liberation Period and the Korean War period(1945~1953) are examined in relation with the consciousness of defectors to South Korea in assessing his literary world anew. As is well known, Whang Soon-won has the unique history of having defected to South Korea from North Korea to flee from the 1946 land reforms. However, in past studies the relationship of this personal history with his literary works has not been brought to the fore. Of course, this is in part due to the difficulty of discussing this topic caused by the fact that the author himself did not discuss his own life, possibly because of his position as a defector. Nevertheless examining Whang Soon-won as a defector is valuable in that it could bring various different lenses to look at his works that are pinned within the category of ‘pure literature.’ The first section of this paper focuses on Whang Soon-won’s history right after his defection and the social, literary context related to defectors. The second section focuses on the authorial consciousness as Homo Sacer through the motif of the ‘sinner without sin’ that appears within the fiction. The third section looks at how the fictions written during the Korean War period appropriate the author’s voice in comparison with other fictions written during the Korean War period. In the fourth section, the faith for new generation shown within the fictions are discussed as the new stateless home that the author chose as a refugee.