일제 말기 만주 개척 서사에 나타난 젠더 표상 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the gender representations in the Manchukuo cultivation novels in the late colonial period, focusing on Daeryuk, Bukhyangbo and Cheonyeoji. In Daeryuk, Yukiko who is an upper-class intellectual, working as a doctor in Japan would engage herself to Oyama. Thus, she would be upgraded by him to a figure representing the colonial and economic power. She also would reestablish her identity by converting her love of Oyama into an altruism. In Bukhyangbo, Jeongae who has received a modern education hopes to realize her dream of vocalist, departing from Manchu. Unlike the characters who wish to build an ideal community in Manchu, she pursues her own individual life. After all, she would be banished because she could not be admitted into a member of the community. In Cheonyeoji, Seonju who has grown up in a rich family would break off her engagement to Nampyo. She who has existed outside of the epic or the medical cultivation would advance into the inside of the epic through her love of Nampyo. She attempts to attach a meaning of her life through the material aid to Nampyo. However, she would select suicide because her love is denied. The Manchukuo cultivation novels always feature the women who wish to reconstruct their life. Such efforts imply that the dominant discourse would not perfectly control their life. Nevertheless, the Manchukuo cultivation novels feature the efforts to construct an imaginary community through an individual subject. When such a scheme is combined with the ways of representing the women, the problem of silence would follow. The characters beyond the area of representation would be excluded or banished, and therefore, their existences could not be interpreted. If women’s specific life should be traced centering around their experiences, it would be possible to understand the Manchukuo cultivation novels anew.