『문학예술』에 나타난 폭격의 서사 ― 한국전쟁기 미국 폭격을 중심으로

Abstract

The attainment of air superiority is related to successful aerial bombardment and airraid. In modern warfare, dominance in air combat is the decisive factor for the success ofground and maritime operations, which is ultimately to a military victory. With launchingairstrikes on ground forces under the notion of protecting the soldiers from a home countryand limiting the target range to military related objectives, aerial bombardment devastatesthe core f acilities in e nemy’ s rear a reas a nd demoralizes armies a nd civilians. However, aerial bombing in modern war is considered a huge massacre (wholesale execution)since it still implies the possibility to cause civilian casualties. This paper aims to examine the North Korea’s reaction to the aerial bombardments duringthe Korea war as the two different perspectives toward the airstrikes shows in theSouth and North Korean novels, respectively. In order to understand the reality of theaerial bombings by the U.S. Air Force and the following attitude of North Korean peopletoward them, a number of the literary works in Munhakyesul and other North Koreanpost-war novels has been scrutinized. The paper will first examine the type of aerialbombing showing in the military operations by the U.S. Air Force. And then the paperwill focus on the basic reactive strategies used by North Korea against the aerial bombings,especially on the narrative strategy. The result demonstrates that the North Korea’s reaction against the bombardments hasboth physical and spiritual aspect. Regarding the physical aspect, the North Korean governmentarranged the MIG fighters as a group of hunting fighters to attain the air supremacy. On the other hand, the hero’s discourses within the novels about aerial bombing were constantlyproduced in terms of the spiritual aspect, taking the winner’s point of view. In otherwords, North Korea intentionally emphasized the spiritual victory by taking a winner’s pointview. This winner’s point of view was spreading out through a government doctrine at first,and then applied to written material : literature, propaganda leaflets, and posters. Especially in the North Korean novels describing a group of hunting fighter, it is noticeablethat the novels disclose the close relationship between North Korean literature and its propagandaleaflet. The North Korean literary works during the Korean War constantly repeats the narrativestructure of a spiritual victory against the U.S. military with the advanced technology. Byproducing the stories about aerial bombing, the literature of North Korea intended to replacethe internalized fear with other aspects of literature (e.g., hatred, hostility, disgust,sarcasm, camaraderie, laughter, and the hope for a newly established community) In fact,North Korea admitted the fact that they were incomparably outgunned by the enemy fromthe beginning of the war. In addition to this, the government kept emphasizing on the importanceof the armies and heroes who bore a sense of genuine patriotism and proud oftheir country. Thus, the repeated use of the narrative strategy about the spiritual victory isone key strategy for North Korea to carry out a war and ultimately protect their territory