조선족의 문화대혁명 -김학철 장편소설 『20세기의 신화』를 중심으로-

Abstract

Kim Hak-cheol’s novel, “The Myth of the 20th Century”, is well-known for its acrimonious revelation of Mao Zedong’s deification by portraying the reality of Marxism-Leninism in China along with major scenes during the Mao Zedong period. Therefore, many preceding studies have focused on romantic interpretations that focus on the history of resistance against oppressive political power while exposing the contradictions in modern Chinese political history. In response, it was noted that this work set the period of the anti-rightist movement in 1957 as well as the spatial background of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. This event served as a decisive opportunity for writer Kim Hak-cheol, who believed in Marxism-Leninism all his life, to awaken from the mimong of Maoism, and in response to this, this article re-read the concept of “the change of seasons of the 5th and 7th systems” named by Chen Li-chuan, focusing on Yanbian Korean-Chinese intellectuals among the issues raised by “The Myth of the 20th Century”. From this point of view, this article examined the possibility that this work could raise a new problematic framework for East Asian literary history, emphasizing that an understanding of modern Chinese political history since 1957 is an essential path to reading “The Myth of the 20th Century”. Moreover, if the epic background of this work (1957-1965) and the background surrounding the publication of this work (1996) process are included, an international perspective is required in that there are many issues to consider, including Korea-China relations and political history of North Korea and the Soviet Union. In other words, the narrative of the novel ends in “The Eve of the Cultural Revolution” (1965), but this work led author Kim Hak-cheol to be branded as a “anti-revolutionary” after he was released from prison as a “anti-revolutionary” and lived as an unemployed person until he was reinstated (1980). This is why the title of this article was pointed out as “the Cultural Revolution of the Korean People” even though the background of the novel is centered on the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture during the anti-rightist movement.