최성각 소설의 타자의식과 생태주의적 특성 연구

Abstract

This study set out to investigate novels of Choi Seong-gak that had advocated a non-anthropocentric view of the world transcending species by publishing his green literary works consistently in the post-humanism era oriented toward ecologism. As he maintains that authors should take the side of those who are suffering in any cases, his literature shows sympathy and solidarity with the female elderly, migrant workers, Asian people, North Korean partisans, and animals. In his Shadow of Jinttobaegi, old women with their otherness of “poverty,” “woman,” “grandmother,” and “native” become female ghosts in a patriarchal society and convey their resentment and sorrow with the sound of wind, wave, and sand as transcendent linguistic signifiers that are not signified, showing the sad meanings of shamanistic and miraculous life. In his King Zai of the Night, Hill of Yesbi and A Himalayan Woman in Solitary Confinement, Nepalese people from a poor country are subjected to violation of human rights, hatred against women, and racial discrimination and request an ethical order in the face of others. In his Mt. Buyong, he restores the being of others that have not had their voices through the lives of North Korean partisans. Reflecting his consciousness of others even for the nature, animals, plants, and inorganic matters that are more subjected to assault and pain than vulnerable human beings in society, his literature is characterized by ecologism with topics of damaged nature and environmental contamination. His novels report on the reality with in a documentary and realistic way based on real names and concrete data and statistics. Shadow of Jinttobaegi looks squarely on the contamination of the Namdae Stream, and Bhaisajyaguru Is Not Coming depicts disconnection between nature and people. Mass for the River and The Dong River Flows, Embracing the Stork Rapids make diagnosis with problems caused by unnatural environmental changes involving the Dong River being stored and flowing backward including life crisis, destruction of animal and plant ecosystems, and water contamination, raising objections to the construction of a dam on the river in Yeongwol. The Geese Named Matda and Mudabi shows sympathy with the warmness, beauty and consideration of animals, talking about egalitarianism. Based on ecological consciousness transcending different religions including Buddhism with its ecology of dependent origination and mercy, Catholicism with its life ideas, and Taoism with its non-anthropocentricism and organic life philosophy, Choi's literature overcomes the limitations of humanism and delivers the thematic consciousness of mutual survival for all, thus holding contemporary significance.