식민지시기 소년탐정소설과 ‘모험’의 상관관계 - 방정환, 김내성, 박태원의 소년탐정소설을 중심으로

Abstract

Juvenile detective novels flourished along with modern literature in the colonial period, and the writers such as Bang Jungwhan, Kim Naesung,and Park Taewon produced the major works of the period. These novels have been undervalued qua “serious” detective novels because of glaring feature of adventure. However, adventure is an indispensable element of the genre abounding in Korean detective novels. It is “holy cause” and “boys’idealism” that transformed Bang’s and Kim’s stories into grand narratives on a larger scale. They differed in that Bang’s boys devote themselves to “nation” and Kim’s to “empire”. Park’s boys might appear to be “troblemakers”indifferent to “shade of the times”. Contrary to the appearence, political conformism in his novels cannot be covered up in the circular structure in which a hero returns to his safe routine after adventure of catching a thief who encroached on his safety. It is at this point of return that we can detect “shade of the times” even in hoopla of Park’s troublemakers.