소설이 죽음을 사유하는 방식 - 오정희의 「옛우물」, 김훈의 「화장」, 배수아의 「시취」를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The study is based on the view that perception on death is generated in differences between adjustment and maladjustment with regard to social participation and individual singularity. It will focus on analyzing the symbol of death and the way of participating in death in Old Well (1994) by Jeong-hee Oh, Cremation (2004) by Hun Kim and The Smell of a Dead Body (2006) by Su-ah Bae. Jeong-hee Oh’s Old Well resolves the touch question of death summarized as ‘absence of absence’ through the use of relocation that starts with an old well and an illustration that contemplates Yeondangjip. It adjusts to death by participating in the myth of immortality where an individual death is assumed as an overture of revival and circulation of the nature. Cremation by Hun Kim shows the pain of a dying person and maladjustment to the way that the contemporary society handles death. As it juxtaposes the image of a corpse and the stench of a dead body with the imagination that life equals beauty, it attempts to overcome the fear of impurity. The Smell of a Dead Body (2006) by Su-ah Bae portrays a close-minded self who tries to adjust to death by oneself. He shows self-reflecting senility and spiritual anxiety as the existence that participates in death. As a result of analyzing the three texts, it has been found that participation in death starts with the maladjustment to death as domesticated by the species and the society and that it leads to a process of finding a point of contact with individual sympathy for social understanding about death.