조병화론: 역사적 트라우마와 자기보존의 여정

Abstract

Poet Cho Byung-hwa (1921-2003) is a prolific poet who has released 53 collections of creative poems in over 50 years since his debut in 1949. His poem drew attention and support from readers and the public from the 1950s to the 1970s and 1980s. However, from the literary circles, he received mixed criticisms, and the academic circles did not treat him as a significant poet in the history of contemporary Korean poems. This study revealed that the origin of Cho's poems was in the historical trauma caused by the experience he had during the liberation period and examined his poem writing as a journey of self-preservation and the characteristics of his poem. This study intended to explore the reason Cho’s poetry gained popularity for a long time. He perceived the liberation period as a reckless, collectivist era. In particular, he experienced a historical trauma immediately after the crisis caused by the proposal for establishing Seoul National University. Cho took self-preservation as an absolute task within the historical anxiety during the Cold War era and scrutinized the problem of death, and explored relationships with others. As a result, he wrote poems that gazed at the limits in establishing the subject due to the absence of otherness. They showed the difficulties of self-establishment the subject experienced through the historical reality of the Cold War, liberation and division, and a section of liberalism in the Cold War culture. To Cho, history manifested itself in the otherness. However, the history at the time did not function as the otherness that disclosed the subject. History was abstracted as a life-threatening, violent history with the face of fate for him. Cho's poems continued the journey of self-preservation that was not dragged into history and seemed to have gained sympathy from the ordinary Korean citizens who have been exposed to a broad range of ideological and political violence for a prolonged time. Cho's poetry shows the impossible freedom in the face of a huge historical fate. Still, it allows readers to experience the position of the subject who has the eye for himself/herself and the scene of destiny without being collapsed under it. For it provides a poetic experience to enjoy such a high dimension of spirituality, Cho's poetry could draw attention and support from readers.