1930년대 동북작가군 항일문학의 서발터니티와 재현의 문제― 팔월의 향촌, 생사의 장, 조국이 없는 아이를 중심으로

Abstract

Examining the literary works of the writers from the Northeast provinces of China, this paper reflects on the subaltern position of the Northeast area of China in modern Chinese history. Among those literary works, this paper focuses on Xiao Jun’s Village in August, Xiao Hong’s The Field of Life and Death, and Shu Qun’s “A Child with No Motherland.”Although informed by the elite nationalist discourse from the core areas of China, these literary texts fail to construct univocal nationalist discourse in them. This paper sheds light on how the heterogeneity of the subaltern is revealed as the elite nationalist discourse in the texts are undermined by such themes as individual values, gender, Korean ethnicity, and so on. In doing so,I argue that the resistance narratives of the Northeast writers are indicative of the limitations of representation. The object of this study is the point where the nationalist discourse of resistance, which buttresses the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, begins. The problem of representing peasants from the peripheral region effectively relates to the problem of the Chinese Communist Party representing the common people. The latter problem underlies the tumultuous history of China after 1949. The literary works under study enable us to reflect upon the difficulty or impossibility of such representation.