청소년 장편소설의 임신 갈등 서사 연구 - 2000년대 이후 작품을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study analyzes five young adult novels, whose main narratives are pregnancy conflicts, to examine the ethical consciousness of our society about the sexuality of teenagers in these narratives. Adolescence is a period of underage, so they cannot be subject to sexual desire, but the process of depriving it is not the same for both men and women. The sex of a female teenager rises abruptly and immediately turns into an extreme situation of pregnancy, which comes as an enlightening narrative that means recognition to sexual desire and the frighteningly harsh result at the same time. In this process, the sexual self-determination and independent desires of female teenagers disappear. On the other hand, male teenagers are defined as sex-filled bodies, and their violent attitudes are not explained narratively enough, which results in missing out on opportunities for youth sex exploration, even though sexuality is a major agenda item of gender ideology. The inevitable choice surrounding the delivery of a pregnant teenage girl raises doubts about conventional persuasion. The narratives reveal a dichotomous structure obsessed with maternal ideology that abortion is murder and childbirth is beautiful, and get rid of attention to the life of female teenagers. In particular, there are no very important questions about right for learning for the main characters who are teenagers, which is due to the lack of proper building of female teenagers’ characters. The focus on pregnancy conflict, maternal ideology, and fetal life rights connects to limitation of missing the opportunity to reflect on women’s right to complete self-determination of their bodies, including the right to terminate pregnancy. But when reaching the latest work, The Second Month, Blue Moon, it shows the changing aspect of pregnancy conflict recognizing the sexuality of the teenager and expanding the narrative to the right to study and the prospect of life. Teenage novels dealing with the narrative of pregnancy conflict are incomplete in terms of facing a real problem. The literary truth about adolescent pregnancy and motherhood can only be explored when it comes with the challenge to ideology masquerading as nature, virtue, or essence, and raise questions at the public level. Teenage sexuality narratives should also be discussed together with the choice and responsibility of teenagers so that they can be a place of reflection by giving them back their sexual sovereignty.