생명의 불꽃-북한 과학환상문학의 육체와 과학적 환상

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which North Korean science fiction of the 1960s depicts the human body through the lens of Hong Sun-won’s The Last Lifeline and the novel’s relationship to theories that were popular in North Korean society at the time. A science fiction novel, “The Last Lifeline” tells the story of a young medical student who conquers cancer by discovering a “San-al” the central core of the human circulatory system. This novel, which was serialized in January 1965, is believed to be based on the “Bonghan theory,” that attracted the attention of North Korean society at the time because of its relation to the circulatory system and the central core of the human body. Just as the theory was touted in North Korea as a demonstration of the meridians of Oriental medicine, the novel, in capturing the human body, recognizes it as a universe in which the mysterious spark of life circulates. In this novel, fantasy romanticizes the perception of the human body, while also demonstrating the special nature of North Korean scientific fantasy literature. On the one hand, the fantasy diverts the reader’s attention from the discomfort of the human body lying as a helpless object and expresses the desires and expectations of North Korean society at the time through the dramatic presentation. On the other hand, fantasy in this novel overlaps with the construction of a novel within a novel, creating a boundary between the Bonghan theory and the fantasy of the novel. This scientific fantasy novel, published just before the decline of the Bonghan theory, distances itself from the risk of criticism through the composition of scientific fantasy and fiction, and creates a demarcation zone equal to that distance. Readers understand the text with the theory of reality in mind, while at the same time enjoying it with the understanding that it is only a ‘fantasy’. In this sense, “The Last Lifeline” is a problematic text that intersects the expectations of 1960s North Korean society and its desire for global recognition, the fantasy that mediates between reality and fiction, and, above all, the imaginative possibilities that scientific fantasy literature attempts to achieve.