김형영 시의 기독교적 세계관 연구

Abstract

Kim Hyeong-yeong is a poet who has repeatedly reflected, based on Christian values, on the existence of man and the world. Modern Korean Poetry suffers from a lack of religious self-examination, and a pursuit of the basic meaning of man and the world. On these grounds, it can be said that Kim Hyeong-yeong's poetic entity deepens and extends the metaphysical area of modern poetry. Religious speculation pursuits the substantial world based on the faith upon a Transcendental Being. The passion towards the Transcendental Being, existing beyond the everyday mundane world reflects the absurdity of the real world and propels a determination of reform and sanctification to renew oneself and the world. It is a mechanism which heals and unifies the broken human interior in this age of mammonism. However, poetry resulting from religious speculation based on the Christian spirit or imagination, is a rare case in the history of Korean Modern Poetry. Kim Hyeong-yeong shows a continuous drama of the original sin - penitence - salvation - compassion and sanctification through an extension of religious speculation based upon Christian values such as the original sin and salvation. In Christianity the problem of sin and salvation is related to the broken relationship with God and the existence of man. The existential struggle for the restoration of this relationship through self-examination and penitence found in these poems, in particular, is a rare case not only in Korean Christian literature but also in the entire Korean Modern Poetry. Looking closer at the progress of Kim Hyeong-yeong's poems, it can be found that the anthologies “Shape of Silence” and “Mosquitos Shout Alone” show the awareness of the original sin and the tragic world of death, “When the Sky Opens Up” and “On the Day Waiting Ends” displays a determination towards a cleansing of unrighteousness through Catholic devotion, penitence and salvation, while “Like the Moon of Dawn” and “Low Horizon” manifests an extension of speculation beyond the Christian doctrines, and the sanctification of sin through ‘compassion’. Kim's determination to continuously question the essence of the world before God, to whom Kim entrusts his whole existence, and to discover his inner divinity and realize it in the real world, takes shape of ‘penitence’ and ‘compassion’. He accepts human conditions as a earthly being and a creature, and at the same time desires salvation. Kim's poems, which proceeds from ‘the original sin and death’ to ‘waiting and penitence’, and eventually ‘compassion and salvation’ shows a development in poetic expressions and form according to the transformation of mentality. The first phase displays vocal declarations and sensual images, whereas the second and third phases contain simpler and more straightforward words, excluding rhetorics, skills, or artificial moulding of images. This is the result of the deliberate effort to seek ‘impressive words reaching the essential’, whose similarity with Christian prayers such as arrow prayers and penitence is especially notable. Kim's poems display the suffering and distress of human beings related to the original sin and seeks salvation and sanctification through the extension of speculation and compassion. They seek the essence of the existence of man and the world, and have established an individual aesthetics by expressing the religious conceptual world through lyrics containing Korean mentality.