이성선 시의 물질성과 영원성

Abstract

This study focuses on the fact that the image of ‘water’ continuously appears in Lee Seong-seon’s poetry and examines how it is related to the poet’s poetic world. In the 709 works included in 11 personal poetry collections, excluding full-length serial poetry collections, the number of words related to ‘water’ was used 664 times, and there were a total of 38 cases where ‘water’ was used as the title of the work. Chapter 2 explores poems that directly feature ‘the sea’ as a title or significantly influence the flow of imagery. Here, water is predominantly linked to reality, which, in turn, intertwines with the fundamental questions of human existence. Notably, the poet actively employs physical elements such as ‘hunger,’ ‘nakedness,’ and ‘wounds’ to emphasize the materiality of the body. Chapter 3 analyzes works in which ‘well’, which has the attribute of ‘water’, is used as a title or has a significant influence on the flow of poetry. At this time, ‘water’ shares the characteristic of self-reflection with ‘well’, but it does not completely match the general interpretation of ‘well’. It is interesting to note that an unknown ‘transcendent experience’ occurs through a ‘well’. Additionally, the fact that realistic existence is connected to the eternity of the universe through ‘well’ is very helpful in understanding Lee Seong-seon’s poetry. Chapter 4 examines poems where ‘water’, as a material entity, facilitates adventurous experiences. In Lee Seong-seon’s poetry, ‘water’ has materiality in itself, and the subject looking at ‘water’ senses its own materiality. At the same time, ‘water’ connects the viewing subject, a material being, to the eternity of the universe, which cannot be sensed through materiality. This interplay of materiality and transcendence proves crucial to understanding Lee Seong-seon’s poetic universe and stance.