허물어진 ‘문 안’ - 박완서의 『나목』을 통해 본 한국전쟁과 서울의 공간적 재편

Abstract

Seoul during the Korean War was a place which was actively being rebuilt and transformed behind the shadows of death and ruins. The Naked Tree by Park Wansuh describes Seoul through the spatial tension between the old house (Hanok) in Gye-dong, which was destroyed by the war, and the Post Exchange (PX), which was bustling with people even during the wartime. Considering the fact that Gye-dong was relatively intact from the war in real life, the description of the destroyed house seems to have been symbolic. By focusing on the fact that the old house in Gye-dong was intentionally set in parallel with Myeong-dong, the neighborhood next to the PX which became home to the nouveau riche and exuded vulgarity and foreignness in the novel, this study posited that the spaces in Park Wansuh’s The Naked Tree signified the space “within the gates,” which was the spatial center of traditional Seoul, as well as the spiritual values the traditional Seoul represented. In other words, the fate of the old house in Gye-dong in this novel, which is torn down after becoming increasingly dilapidated, reflects the fate of Seoul. As the traditional spatial orders of the city breaks down in the wartime, the spiritual values within the gates, such as dignity, elegance, and tradition also disappears. On the other hand, Myeong-dong, which is situated next to the PX, becomes a stage where people, who used to be in the peripheries by living “outside the gates” before the war, earn dollars through their resourcefulness and rise to become the nouveau riche of the city. Myeong-dong is rebuilt from the ruins at a fast pace thanks to the new class, and the revival of Myeong-dong becomes a direct reflection of their unprecedented rise. The rampant materialism and brashness are in stark contrast to the atmosphere of Gye-dong. Nevertheless, considering that Gye-dong is described as a space of darkness and death that is beyond repair, the novel is not completely rejecting the unrelenting vitality that flows in Myeong-dong. The protagonist Yikyung roams about the old house in Gye-dong and the PX in Myeong-dong, but eventually chose to endure the wartime by joining the latter. It is only in the peaceful and affluent postwar Seoul, which is free from any vestiges of the war, where she realizes that she had dismissed and even thrown away the spiritual values represented by the old house in Gye-dong and that she joined the philistine world, which she had once despised, with relative ease. The shame she feels while visiting the sturdy Western-style house, which was been built where the old house used to be, reminds the protagonist of the things that have disappeared in postwar Seoul, which were represented by an old house that remains in the corner.