안중근·우덕순의 정체성과 김훈의 '하얼빈' －‘포수’ ‘무직’ ‘담배팔이’ 對 ‘의병’ ‘대한국인’－

Abstract

Kim Hoon boasts of shedding light on three representative words, hunter, unemployed, and cigarette seller, to remove the “shadow of heroism” and reveal the “inner world of youth” from Ahn Jung-geun and Woo Deok-soon in his novel Harbin. Likewise, numerous media outlets also praised the novel. Albeit Ahn Jung-geun states the word hunter during the first interrogation, such wording was nothing more than a delaying tactic to protect his comrades and relatives. Later, Ahn Jung-geun repeatedly emphasized that he was a “Lieutenant General of the Righteous Army of Korea” while in prison. The term unemployed was another expression of a “professional righteous army.” On the other hand, Woo Deok-soon’s cigarette seller was a type of ventriloquism meaning “irrelevant to righteous armies,” which went in a divergent direction from Ahn Jung-geun. After being sentenced to death on February 14, 1910, Ahn Jung-geun contemplated why he had to die. His contemplation moves beyond the “hero” who killed Ito evolving into one of the ordinary compassionate but vulnerable Koreans who had to suffer and perish during the period. This “Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean” is the signature on all his calligraphies alongside a palm seal, and it represents the final self-identity he has reached. Through this “a Korean,” Ahn Jung-Geun, as one of the “general public,” may become a starting line for solidarity beyond the borders of Korea to the public of East Asia and, further, the world. To recapitulate, Ahn Jung-geun moved from being a hunter and unemployed to being a part of “a righteous army” and ultimately became “a Korean.” Nevertheless, the novel Harbin erroneously praises hunter and unemployed in the name of “Youth,” which rather retrogresses the achievement of self-identity that Ahn Jung-geun had achieved. Consequently, the novel becomes another hero narrative instead of removing the shadow of heroism.