손창섭 소설에 드러난 우울자의 저항방식과 희극성

Abstract

This study explores the nihilistic aesthetics in the works of Chang-seop Sohn on the representative of post-Korean war novelists, focusing on the catastrophic effects of Korea war on his works, especially on his deep distrust of history and existing social values, which may be found both in the contents and forms of his novels. This writer have in common in his shared disbelief in such 'big words' as truth, god, and morality, leading his novels to what we call the devaluation of the highest values. Rather his works lean towards the new representation of the highest values. Rather his works lean towards the new representation our world as a kind of the world of demonic power and mythical violence. Sohn's characters may be categorized either as the animalistic human or as the depressed one. Both categories of characters are on the same ground in his trenchant distrust of any established moral values. His characters are what we may call non-humans, who are obsessed with guilty conscience. His characters of non-humans lost their beliefs in such social principles of modern world as causality and reason. This characters may be termed positive nihilists who wish to watch his own destruction with willingness. Apart from the similar elements in his thematic contents, the styles and forms of his works illustrate the shared nihilistic aesthetics. The terrible violence in the Korean war inscribe the unerasable scars on his world view(Weltanschauung). The depressed characters in his novels embody the element of aesthetic existence which differs itself from experiential sadness. The comic is the expression of the more positive countersign to the devastating post-war society. This characters suggest the author's desire for the natural world.