안룡만 연구 시론(試論) - 서사성과 낭만성을 중심으로

Abstract

This study examined the general characteristics of An Ryong-man’s poetry, which have received little attention among South Korean researchers, and their significance in literary history. Born in 1916 in North Pyeongan Province, An Ryong-man was a poet who passed away in North Korea. He worked as a factory worker in Japan and began his literary career in 1934. His poems, focused on the harsh reality of northern nomads and their experiences as laborers, were seen as belonging to the genre of 1930s proletarian realism. Following the division of Korea, An Ryong-man served on the executive council of the writers alliance in North Korea and left behind four books of poetry. The major themes addressed in his poetry include socialist construction, Kim Il Sung's anti-Japanese guerrilla activities, and praise for the heroes of socialist labor. As a faithful messenger delivering the demands of the ruling party, supreme leader and working class, An Ryong-man is highly regarded in the literary history of North Korea. The two important features of his poetry are narrativity and romanticism. His poems expressed hope in the face of suffering even before the division of Korea, and this was later linked to the underlying revolutionary romanticism in the glorification of laborers in socialist construction. A comparison of In the Arms of Gangdong, his first book published in 1934, Morning on the Bank of the Daedong River, published in 1964 in a poetry anthology, reveals the differences between narrativity and romanticism. The tragedy inherent in the dismal lives of nomads before the division of Korea degenerated into “the joy of retrospection.” The romanticism of hope, kept alive despite the tragic fate befallen on laborers, changed into an unconditional revolutionary romanticism towards communism in North Korean literary circles.