우주적 공간 ‘바다’를 향하는 최인훈의 소설 쓰기

Abstract

This study is on novels of Choi, In-Hoon, such as GwangJang, The leg of sky, Taipoon, At Nacta Island, and A letter from the Sea. Assuming all of these works have a common material, the 'Sea' which is described as meaningful space, I decoded these works by spatial semiotics as main methodology. Recognizing 'harbor', 'island' and 'vessel' as secondary spatial-seme and 'Sea' as the main spatial-seme, I tried to analyze changing phase of the author, Choi and draw the new meaning from the 'Sea' space by focusing on the functional relation among characters in spatial-seme. Author Choi's fictional space, 'Sea' reflects the horizontal aspects of harbor-vessel-coast sea-open sea and the vertical aspects of land-vessel-seabed. Harbor symbolizes a escaping point to some outer spaces from the land full of the negative and also creates boundary man in Busan harbor through Korean War in The leg of sky. The characters' movement, which began by escaping from the land, the negative space, is expanded both vertically and horizontally and finally continues to the 'Sea'. The vessel which helps characters' horizontal movement is described as unusual ship―such as battle ship, spy ship, refuge ship etc.― revealing historic circumstances of Korea. Besides, with the allegorical method, the movement to the island which represents a Utopia appears in Taipoon. and meanwhile, seabed discovered later can be understood as an universal space where all individual bodies and memories are melt and unified. From these factors, I found that, to author Choi, story writing which shows pains in reality plays a role to memorize history. From GwangJang to A letter from the Sea, I could find the fact that author's negative attitudes to the reality are changing conciliatorily and positively by decoding the 'Sea' space. Author's imagination only limited in the land is expanding to the infinite sea space to make a compromise with the reality and him imagine future.