한국전쟁기 <경향신문>의 문화면과 김광주의 글쓰기

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the cultural section of "The Kyunghyang Shinmun" during the Korean War, in connection with the role and the writing styles of Kim, Gwang-ju, who was the Chief of the Cultural Section of the newspaper. His roles in the cultural columns of "The Kyunghyang Shinmun" were outstanding in three ways. First, writers took the lead in opening up communication channels with readers who were suffering from the war. Through different formats of <Freedom Column> at first, and then <Womens' Salon> and <Kyunghyang Salon>, writers were leading the efforts to deal with the plight of readers and to answer their questions. Second, they revitalized the cultural discourse which had been put on the back burner due to the special projects undertaken by newspaper companies in line with nationalism. Feature articles, round-table talks and the year-around projects that were all begun with the increase of the number of pages of "The Kyunghyang Shinmun" provided a good opportunity to check the reality and renew the overall cultural affairs during the Korean War period. Third, writers were at the forefront of encouraging creative writing and very active in opening the doors. Their struggles to secure space for a regular column sometimes ended up with being filled with newspaper writers' works, but these efforts significantly paved the way for other writers to create their own works. The works of Kim, Gwang-ju published in "The Kyunghyang Shinmun" during this period clearly showed the dynamics of the newspaper media, the literary circles and writers. His writings can be generally divided into the writings mobilized by the nation and the others written about the everyday life. The works he created for the nation took the form of editorial columns or book reviews, conforming to the sense of nationalism and even deemed as a device to represent his ideology, but when it comes to censorship, he expressed different views. He raised issues about the qualification for censors and the criteria for censorship, while showing his deceitful self-portraits. He did his utmost as a leader in making propaganda against communism at the beginning of the Korean War, but he did not overlook the violent logic by the time when the armistice agreement was about to be signed. The experiential writing about daily life, which was conspicuous in his literary works created after the South Korea's retreat on January 4, 1951, was used as a way of communication to share his experiences with readers. This was connected with the two mechanisms of despair he experienced. The former was experienced when he had to flee leaving his grandmother behind, and the latter was the violence against the writer himself. The first despair, represented in his short stories connected with the impoverished refugee life, deeply touched the emotions of readers at the time, while the other experience intensified his despair of power and people, revealing itself with an unconventional writing style at a time when essays were the prevailing form of writing. Kim, Gwang-ju, however, tried to writing a serial story in a newspaper, receiving both literary criticism and expectations. The above shows that the Korean War Period was the time for Kim, Gwang-ju when there was a balance between the nation, newspaper media and literary activities of the writer.