종로의 사상지리와 임화의 ‘네거리’

Abstract

When facing the transition period of his life, Lim Hwa went out to the Jongno street and attempted to create some poems which showed his contemplation of human history and fate. In the Colonial Period, Jongno was a place of otherness different from the modern trends of Shinmajji, Honmajji and Maymajji in the south of Chunggae Stream, and recognized as a symbol of traditional Korean identity confronting with the Japanese Empire, Mainland and Colonism. Most of the studies of Lim Hwa’s ‘Jongno Intersection’ were also based on such a dichotomous structure of Jongno understanding. Lim Hwa’s ‘Jongno Intersection,’ however, shows its own traits which deny the simple explanation using such words as modernity or nationality. It would be fair to argue that Jongno created Lim Hwa rather than that Lim Hwa found and represented Jongno’s meaning as a place of social movements related to nation or class. That is the arguing standpoint of this paper. Jongno which created Lim Hwa was a collection of various real events mixed with time,place and social dynamics. Lim Hwa attended Bosung Middle & High School from 1921(at his age of 13) through 1925(at his age of 17). The early and mid 1920s was a period which especially witnessed the loud appearance of Korean modern thoughts, youth consciousness and social movements. In those days, Gongpyeong-Dong and Gyeonji-Dong were the center of Jongno. Lim Hwa was created in such real places and events of Jongno, in which he began to lead his literary life. Jongno, a meaningful place to Lim Hwa, built up the foundation of his literary world, and his poetic works belonging to the circle of ‘Jongno Intersection’ were the record, magnification and extension of his empirical understanding and feeling acquired from the embodied Jongno. The poetic key words like ‘enemy’ and ‘Hyeonhae Strait’ were also an extension of his ‘Jongno Intersection.’