1980년대를 배경으로 이성복의 시를 읽는 방식과 의의 - 그의 연애시를 중심으로

Abstract

This paper studies the significance of reading Lee Seong-bok’s poetry, specifically his love poems, with the 1980s, as the background which is referred to as the “Era of Grand Narrative.” It is difficult to deny that national popular literary discourse was a dominant trend in the 1980s, in terms of literary themes, and in consideration of that background, the concept of romance itself, which is the most intimate and private, may sound heterogeneous in those years. In fact, even if the 1980s was referred to as the Era of Grand Narrative, it was also a time when a lot of books of poetry were sold. In terms of poetry, the aspect of popular poetry was strong, but thanks to the significant response of readers, the genre of love poetry was also one of the best sellers at times. The fever of love poems that existed at the time when mentioning individuals itself, especially the love and romance of individuals, was considered extravagant and it seems insufficient to dismiss as a temporary popular literary phenomenon when explaining the 1980s. Therefore, this study discusses Lee Seong-bok’s poetry in connection with love poetry and the 1980s, taking into account the fact that he was a representative poet of the 1980s and many readers take note of his love poems. I find that there is a common aspect between the 1980s and Lee Seong-bok’s love poems: melancholy. The 1980s was a period when it was commonplace to see deaths from the pursuit of the aspirations for social reforms. Therefore, mourning was necessary after the deaths, but mourning was prohibited institutionally for the subjects of discourse. The subjects who were prohibited from mourning became melancholika. The speakers of Lee Seong-bok’s poems are also melancholika. The former was the subjects of the grand discourse, and they were also the readers of Lee Seong-bok’s poetry. They encountered each other as melancholika, and reading love poems for the subjects to whom mourning was forbidden was to replace the mourning process with a love poem. Because mourning is a symbolic register for the dead through a communal ritual. It means that the subjects who read love poems were replacing the act of mourning with the symbolization of parting in love poems. It is because the love poems belong to the work of symbolization of parting that laments the sadness of parting. Lee Seong-bok’s love poems are melancholika that sing the hurt and pain of love, not the joy of love. In conclusion, the love poems in the 1980s can be seen as a response to the unconscious request of subjects of the 1980s for a mourning ritual.