김기택 시의 관찰적 화자 연구

Abstract

Kim Gi-taek is a contemporary Korean poet who has been still energetically performing poetic composition activities by issuing 5volumes of collected poems till now since he went on the platform of Korean literature world with his first official poem titled ‘Gopchu (Hunchback)’ listed in the spring literary contest of the Hankook Ilbo, a newspaper publishing company in 1989. It is reasonable to say that Kim plays a major role in Korean contemporary poetry. However, it is unfortunate that there are few studies dealing with poets who perform literary activities in Korean contemporary world of poetry. Nevertheless,academic researches and discussions about Kim Gi-taek started to be highlighted in parallel with beginning of studies on human body around Korean contemporary poems in 1990's, and those researches and discussions have been more activated in 2000's, but most of them have been limited primarily to the following considerations:First, those researches and discussions focus on ‘human body.’ Kim's poems employ human body to highlight the absence of mentality and the materiality of our contemporary society. Conventional researches and discussions deal with these issues particularly in terms of ‘materialism of body’, ‘phenomenology of body’ or ‘bodily poem’ and more. Indeed,Kim's poems contain many poetical languages about human body. In this study, it was found that the absolute majority (89%, 244 pieces) of Kim's 5 volumes of collected poems (totaling 274 pieces) uses typical words primarily about each bodily region. That is why it is natural that existing researches and discussions discuss human body, but they have a tendency to focus somewhat largely on stories about human body. Next, conventional researches and discussions suggest that Kim's poetic works intend to disclose underprivileged people in our modern society and denunciate any absurd reality surrounding them. This viewpoint appears to have a tendency to fuel old controversies about ‘engagement’ or ‘art for art.’ The continuance of these wasting discussions is possibly attributed to lots of prior studies about Kim's poems and easy academic approachability to his poems. On the other hand, there is another literary study: Kang Young-jun's “The Trial Study of the Kim Gi-Taik Poetry: The Aesthetics Resistance against the Speed” In his paper, Kang says that “Kim's poems reveal the daily reality of our contemporary city captivated by speed competition amplified under the control of capitalistic system ....... (ellipsis)....... He is a poet who tries to find out any minute gap in geometrical spaces of gigantic city.” Then, Kang describes major 3aspects of Kim's poetry, such as 1) “Time to reflect and introspect” to have “a chance of temporary reflection and introspection at momentary standstill point of time”, 2) “Esthetics of slowness and trace” to “resist fastness and speed” and 3) “Voice in advance of ‘word’” to “reveal a sort of adverse sentiment” in “fast and efficient delivery like a mechanism of speed employed in city” respectively. That is how Kang discusses poetic space and speed of Kim's poems. Kang's study shows us a new viewpoint about Kim's poems. As mentioned above, most of conventional studies about Kim deal with human body. Kim Gi-Taik is spotlighted as a poet of observation and illustration in Korean contemporary world of poetry. However,existing discussions about Kim have been limited only to book review and some of his works, and have yet to fully address his works. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate human body, poetic space and object as discussed in prior studies, so that it can examine how Kim has reflected his poetic observations on his poems in terms of poetic form. Moreover, this study intends to cover Kim's poems ranging from works before his entry to Korean world of poetry up to date, so that it can examine how they have changed in terms of observation and illustration.