일제강점기 <옥중소설>과 조선인 간수 연구 ―나카니시 이노스케 『붉은 흙에 싹트는 것』을 중심으로―

Abstract

This study analyzes the control mechanism of colonial Joseon prisons, focusing on Nakanishi Inosuke’s debut work “Sprouts from Red Earth” (1922). As Japan’s representative proletarian writer, this work is considered to have had a considerable impact on professional literature in Japanese colonial era Joseon. In particular, this study examined the representation of Korean guards in the novel, the specific status of the Joseon Governor-General’s examination to become guards at the time, and how the punishment model introduced from the West after modern times was transplanted to colonial Joseon through Japan. Previous studies positively evaluate the Japanese empire, capitalism, and solidarity with Koreans outside the colony, but for this solidarity, the Korean guards are overlaid with a villain/pro-Japanese frame, which results in a depression in the binomial scheme of ethnicity, thereby concealing differences in class and occupation within the nation. In addition, focusing on the Korean guards in the novel through the test and model answers organized by the Korean Government-General of Korea, the Korean guards often lose control of Japanese prisoners, even though they can speak fluent Japanese. This unequal relationship between Korean guards and Japanese prisoners was the result of the prison system outside of colonial Joseon at the time. Furthermore, Koreans outside of Korea were living in a dual and paradoxical structure in which prisoners trapped in prison were controlled by “Japanese guards” and “native guards.”