서사의 시간구조와 시간순서연구- 오정희의「옛우물」을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Given that novel is a time art, this study set out to investigate the time structure and time order of novel. Choosing The Old Well by Oh Jeong-hee, the investigator analyzed the time structure and time order of narrative and examined what kind of roles time played and what kind of structural effects it had in the novel. While the time order of the narrative progresses from the present to the future like a universal structure, the major event of narrative lies in the past, which makes the time structure unique. The biggest cause of such a time structure is that the main plot comes from the speaker's internalized recollection. Thus the present serves to provide return motives continuously so that recollection can surface as the core of narrative. The progress of narrative corresponds to the present, but the center of narrative is situated in recollection. The time order cannot help returning to the past over and over again in order to present recollection in front of narrative. In addition, the writer's often uses of the prediction technique in recollection multiply the number of time reversal. As a result, the present time of the novel turns into an instrumental time for recollection and describes meaningless events and common information about the speaker. The Yeondang house and the fool are most described in the present time because the speaker identifies with the object of recollection. The biggest characteristic of the novel's time order is the frequent utilization of the prediction technique, which is a unique narrative method not usually found in other novels. The author must have adopted the technique for the sake of the speaker's psychological mechanism. The speaker retrieves 'him' from the past wanting to talk about 'him.' However, she is dreadful of her reality that she does love 'him' even though she's married with a son. Her wishing to come close to 'him' puts her between denial and acceptance, which make ambivalent emotions. As a result, the speaker created a special prediction technique, which is neither denial nor acceptance. It's also the way the speaker tries to avoid truth. The novel ends its narrative with the completion of the legend about the old well of the great-grandmother. The speaker doesn't complete the legend in the early part of narrative not being able to remembering it all and then succeeds in completing the entire legend. The moment represents when the legend of the old well is completed and further implies that the narrative will continue in circle because the narrative ends in a mark of no expression.