김남천의 <사랑의 수족관> 다시 읽기 - 장소와 공간의 문제를 중심으로

Abstract

Kim, Nam-cheon(金南天)'s novel Sarang-eui sujokwan(The aquarium of love) has been defined as the realistic reflection of social conditions of terminal colonial ages of Korea(1937~1945). But the novel represented social conditions of those ages merely focusing on the world of rich, powerful, and Japanese collaborators. In the novel, short geographical distances between characters means their emotional intimacy. In case of Yi, Kyong-hui and Kim, Kwang-ho, when they fell off thousands of kilometers, their romantic relationship was worst. However, when they got engaged finally, geographical distances between them was the shortest. Also In the novel, poor people and their communities were only represented very restrictively. Poor characters desired to be a mainstream class, but they never achieved a goal. They only fall a victim to a risk of exploitation by a mainstream class. Yi, Kyong-hui's plan of establishing the child-care center was a part of expansionary policy for Japanese militarism and fascism actually, even though the plan was disguised as a non-political public welfare service. Sin-giljung, a town that decided as a location of the child-care center in the novel, was a part of sites that had been developed as ammunítion ìndustry districts by Japanese colonial authorities in those ages.