최명익 소설의 ‘역설’ 고찰

Abstract

On this paper, I shall analyze the novels of Choi Myeong-Ik published in the end of the colonial era, in order to touch on how the three types of paradoxes, “Symmetrical paradox”, “Circulatory paradox”, and “Transcendental paradox” are taken place, and the meaning of each in turn. Symmetrical paradox can be found on <A rainy road> and <Simmun>. The former with ambivalent attitude, contempt and envy, whereas the latter described Yeo-Ok as both a promiscuous prostitute and a virtuous housewife to show the paradox. Next, circulatory paradox is on <Characterless man>, <Paradox> and <Simmun>. On <Characterless man>, Jeong-Il quotes a paradoxic statement that only the dead can bury the dead to try to combine the homogeneous with the antipodal. And Mun-Il on <Paradox> dreams a hopeful future by a circulatory paradox that death could overcome death. Lastly on <Simmun> Hyeon Il-Young justifies his behavior by a paradox that a thorough insult can overcome insult, but its sincerity can hardly be bought. Transcendental paradox is shown on <Simmun> and <JangSamISa>. In <Simmun> Yeo-Ok’s death is an example of the paradox by an enlightenment, putting the past and the present together, and in <JangSamISa>, the intellectual’s self-reflection due to the prostitute’s strong each for life, who was expected to commit suicide for indignity, shows transcendental paradox. Through the paradoxes Choi Myeong-Ik provides a chance to step away from the false awareness of the intellectuals, up to the actual reality. Speaking in the sense of when the novels were published, the three types of paradoxes overlap, but does depict symmetrical paradox moving towards circulatory paradox and then summing up with transcendental paradox. Therefore, ambivalence in the first is refined through the next, then sublated in the last, finally summing up by overcoming the boundaries of binarity.