＜小巷深处(1956)＞에 나타난 ‘妓女’의 개조 재현 양상과 ‘갱생’의 의미

Abstract

In the background aiming to organize neo-socialistic men in the early stage of founding the New China, the strong and full-scale prostitution prohibiting movement was carried out. The ‘prostitutes’ were located in an ambiguous point in which it was not clear if they were the objects of compassion and pity, or the objects of blame as the main culprit of pleasure and decadence. In this circumstance, the Chinese government of the time aimed to set the ‘prostitutes’ as the representative image of women who were reformed as an ideal socialistic image of women after getting out of the capitalistic class. Defining the prostitution as a class issue caused by bourgeois men who were exploiting proletarian women, the ‘prostitutes’ were regarded as the suppressed ruled, and the ‘prostitutes’ liberation’ from the prostitution meant the ‘liberation’ from the institutional oppression. Lu Wenfu’s Deep in the Alley is a representative novel work handling the reformation and rehabilitation story of a ‘prostitute’. In the plot of Deep in the Alley, Xu Wenxia who degenerated into a ‘prostitute’ due to financial hardship at home when she was only 16, was reformed as a laborer and also obtained her love through the reforming education after the foundation of New China. The ‘productive labor’ is working as an important medium and device that bring the rehabilitation and salvation to Xu Wenxia who used to be a ‘prostitute’. Even though Xu Wenxia used to be a ‘prostitute’ in the past, she gets a new life and also obtains the psychological freedom and happiness by actively participating in the reforming movement led by the government. Besides the ‘productive labor’, the ‘love and romantic relationship’ also works as an important medium and device that bring the rehabilitation and salvation to Xu Wenxia. This work realizes the meanings of love by presenting an ideal male character called Zhang Jun who leads Xu Wenxia to become a professional electrician. The love between Xu Wenxia and Zhang Jun is described as a path toward the rehabilitation and salvation, instead of the truth revealing the passionate and private emotion of individuals. This shows that Xu Wenxia needs an assistant who could ideologically and vocationally lead her to get the salvation and rehabilitation, which also means that it is impossible for her to reach the rehabilitation and salvation by herself.