서정주 초기문학의 심성 구조

Abstract

It has been usually accepted in the Korean literary history that Seo, Jeong-joo's early poems has the characteristic of showing 'the longing for sensual life force and holiness of human body,' 'decadence' and 'eternity.' This study, however, aims to make a microscopic approach to the roots of Seo's poetic words, images and sensibility, viewing his existential experience and social conditions. The basic intention of the study was to get out of the existing metaphysical and hermenutic approach to Seo's poetry. To light up the mentalitē immanent in the main symbol of <Self–portrait>, the son of a Mammy with black nails, the study, at first, kept an eye on the key poetic word, 'nail.' Through the study, it was discovered that the ideal modern beauty represented by clean and limpid nails was symmetric with the low and inferior self–consciousness represented by black nails. Seo once felt in love with a city woman with clean nails and experienced the loss of love. After that, he embodied his feeling of isolation in the poem, <A leper>. In those days, peple with leprocy were regarded as antisocial or abnormal beings and quarantined under the government control. Identifying himself with a repulsive leper or a Hwa Sa(a colorful snake with a flower design on it), Seo attempted an escape from the modern life structure based on civilization and culture. The dynamic power derived from the escape accelerated him to write poems. This study also paid attention to his nickname 'Goong Bal(the nothern polar region without any plants) which can be seen on the book cover of the <Collection of Hwa Sa>. His strong will to grow a life on the sterile land drived him to open a new poetic world. That's why the tone of redness and flower images so often appear in Seo's poems. Along with his marriage, he came to find new meanings of family and ordinary life, and the motive power of his escape gradually went down.