한국전쟁기 여성시 연구

Abstract

Studies on poetic literature created during Korean War (1950.6.25-1953.7.27) have been a popular subject matter among Korean scholars. Former studies hold significance in that they attempted to operate systemized and organized study through categorizing the war poetries by themes, time periods, imageries, and so on. Based on previously done studies, this paper will examine the specificities of women’s poetries during the Korean War period by analyzing and contemplating the poetries of the female poets who took active parts in the history of the Korean literature, with the concentration on what perceptions were kept by the female poets during the time of the war, in which the masculinity in thoughts and views was magnified. During the wartime, female poets primarily incubated poems containing the vivid sense of realism and tension to provide the reality of war representing the signs of the time. Major tools utilized by the poets were realistic and bold depiction of the battlefield as well as tragic situations caused by the war such as death, parting, fleeing, and pain caused by war. Studies made so far mainly mention only the poems of Yoon-Sook Mo, Chun-Myung No, Nam-Jo Kim, and Yoon-Sook Hong. However, this article will re-illuminate works of Ae-Shil Cho and Young-Ran No and include them in the boundaries of war poems. The existing discussions have not given salience to the specifications of women’s poetries during the Korean War; they surcease upon mentioning Yoon-Sook Mo’s poem: "A soldier speaks upon death." However, female poets during the war period display individualized unique tendency; through those propensity they formed a variety of features of women’s literature in Korean literary history. Yoon-Sook Mo projects the reality of refuges and expresses her gratitude to the Korean armed forces and the UN troops by giving praises to the army. Chun-Myung No's poems mainly focus on projecting the internal conflicts related to the forced labor. On the other hand, Nam-Jo Kim combines feminity with Christian faith in pursuit of revelation of the true meaning of love and salvation she emphasizes on the restoration and healing after the war. Yoon-Sook Hong's poems attempt to deal with the wounded and patriotic heart that rises upon witnessing the barren soil of the homeland. In contrast to the sympathetic poets mentioned above, Ae-Shil Cho remains relatively objective to the tragic reality of the war. Although she does not turn away from the truth, however, the subtle pain heartache of the poet is exposed on the other side of the recriminations. Young-Ran No moans for the tragic division of the country yet she dreams for the hope of reunification of Koreas. These poetic worlds of the female poets who were actively working during the wartime reveal the fact that even though the women’s literature had received the least attention throughout the history of Korean literature, it has been appealing its unique significance that has never been quite simple to explain. In short, the prominent features of poetries written by female poems during the wartime are: peace of the homeland, praise toward the Korean armed forces and UN troops, battle-scarred and, protection of lives, and maternal instinct that arose during the time. In the middle of the turbulent era of Korean history, ladies of letters continued writing as a witness as well as the party concerned of Modern Korean history. They not only depict the reality of the Korean War through vivid descriptions but also continuously seek different ways of life to overcome the given circumstances during the wartime by internalizing the fear and insecurities they felt as women. Through their literature work these female poems exhibit the change of the values of the time. The female poets who were demanded to protect the lives of their family during the war restored the memories of the reality of that time with their own perspectives and achieved to prove the historical meanings of ordinary lives that were omitted in macroscopic and an do centric accounts of history.