‘나 사는 곳’ 시절의 오장환 시편과 고향 형상 재고: 일제 말기 발표작을 중심으로

Abstract

Previous studies on Oh Jang‐hwan’s poetic world in the late period under the rule of Japanese imperialism have been trapped in the positive error of analyzing with works included in his later poem collection Where I Live (1947). With regard to Oh Jang‐hwan’s poetic world during this period, moreover, previous studies attempted only categorical, generic, and schematic interpretation of his returning home and discovery of community. Recognizing these limitations of previous studies, the present study purposed to examine the process of diachronic conversion observed in his home poems based on Oh Jang‐hwan’s early works published during the late period under the rule of Japanese imperialism. For a while even after the publication of poem collection Dedications (July 1939), Oh Jang‐hwan’s poems still maintained the inner‐directed voice that repeated the loneliness, grief, and struggle expressed in Dedications on the mountain. From April 1940, however, his poems showed the movement of change, coming down to the riverside of the land. In particular, his poems during these days showed his attitude of antagonizing two conflicting desires, namely, discovering and leaving home, and approaching and escaping from home. Through this process, his poems from October 1941 developed to adhere close to objects and to be allied with others out of his vivid experiences with the reality of his hometown. The journey of poetic dialectics from the discovery of home to leaving home and returning home is found in his poetic world just before the Liberation. In this sense, his realistic poems published after the Liberation were not ‘protrusions’ or ‘radical changes’ but had been foretold to some degree through poetic conversion as observed in A Song of Homecoming (October 1941) and O Dove! Perch on My Shoulder (July 1942).