이상의 『12월 12일』 에 나타난 주제의식과 서사생성원리 연구

Abstract

December 12this Lee Sang's only full-length novel and his first work in genealogy of his literary accomplishment. So it can be considered to reflect the writer's autobiographical memory. However, single research studies on this novel has not been entirely satisfactory. Even though Lee's first novel has been appreciated for ranging over general characteristics of the writer's literary world, interpretation on December 12th tends to focus on writer's biographical factors reflected on the novel. The predominant view onDecember 12th is seeing it as genesis of Lee's literary world full of fear and anxiety over the matter of death and existential nihilistic consciousness, relating the novel to Lee's contemporary experience of hemoptysis and the memory of his childhood as an adopted son. Attempts to connect suppression and shock that Lee may have felt through his history of family to its narrative structure have been observed constantly but the estimation for the novel itself is negative. Weakness of epic, formal immaturity, lack of solidity of characters, and withdrawal into the subjective idea are pointed out as the shortcomings of this work to be a proper f ull-length novel. These flaws a re t he r easons that December 12th is applied as subordinate text to figure out Lee's literary characteristics and only recognized as a maiden work. However, confining the meaning of December 12th to the existing discourse leaves sense of inconvenience. Criticism aboutDecember 12thon that account that it falls short of the full-length novel's standards is only valid when it is estimated according to general literary criteria. Ordinary novels meet the requirement of ordinary literary standard. If Lee wrote the novel without considering the standard, the reading should be apart from the familiar standard. Lee is reckoned to have been wandering between the tradition of realistic writing and shift to modern writing style. Modernism novels put up with the inconvenience created by the dissolution of narrative exhibiting the gap between the self and the external world. If his narrative style had followed the accepted format of novel, Lee's literary achievement that is seen nowadays would have not existed. So December 12th should be appreciated as a sign that portends destruction of formal structure and experiments occurred in Lee's short stories. So the limitation caused by the hybridism among perspectives, frequent intervention of writers, and flat characters which have been simply derogated as the writer's immaturity need to b e reconsidered a s principles f or c reating new narrative. Such a shift of v iew point will deepen the understanding of conflict that the writer had gone through who was on the crossroads of both extremes; realism and modernism. It also implies that Lee started his agony about writing itself since the novel, and it was an announcement of forthcoming 'incident.' This article will focus on the novel itself and contemplate on generative principles of narrative ofDecember 12th and the way it works. So how such elements is connected to its theme, 'destiny,' and the novel's geopolitical position in Lee Sang's literary world will be observed.