시인 존재론의 탐구에서 동화시에 이르는 길- 백석의 후기시를 중심으로

Abstract

Baeksok’s poems have been discussed as called with such names of Manchuria Psalm and northern specimens, especially for the ones written in the later period of his career, when uniqueness features in most of his literary works. During this period he had changed ontological crisis into poetical achievement through introspection; what this study focuses on is the self-consciousness of the poet lying in the core of his introspection. At the end of Japanese colonial years when Korean was forbidden to use with more strengthened oppression, many writers could not help but agonize over the literary act itself. In this time, however, consistently retaining his thought that being a poet is to face a lonely and sad fate, he emphasized self-consciousness of a noble spiritual poet corresponding to a brutal reality. This study will examine ontology (substantial existence) in being a poet and understand Baek’s romance in the context of contemporary poetics and literary history while closely relating his exploring poetic world to Romanticism. With presenting the existence of “a poet” in many of his later works, he requests from a sense of consciousness of crisis and introspection to recognition and conviction of being a poet. Such his stressing concerns encounter intense spiritualism that Jeong Jiyong highlighted in the late 1930s. This spirit is referred to as a power that puts a distance from unrighteous reality. This power can mean nobleness, self-reliance, and innocence of poets. This can be a core of a poetic spirit in Romanticism and be fundamentally well-aligned with the spirit. The worries about the existence of being a poet and the pursuit of his spirit and artistic matter not only could raise a question on the negligence of the then North Korean literary world after the liberation, but could be also abundant nourishment for creativity and development of children’s poets. In this sense, studying on the essence of the poet Baeksok and his later poetry can be a significant feat for both the South and the North of Arts as well as for Baeksok himself.