김승옥 소설에 나타난 수치심에 관한 시론

Abstract

Unlike the previous generations of the 1950s and later generations of the 1970s, the main characters of Kim Seung-ok’s novels in the 1960s were confronted by inner realities, rather than historical or external realities. According to cognitivism, where emotions are seen as closely linked to consciousness, the nature of 1960s literature can be best understood through the ‘subjectivization of consciousness.’ Kim Seung-ok’s novels reveal situations where emotions are disturbed due to the violent order of modern times. However, it is important to note that the inner and emotional aspects of individuals have also strengthened their awareness of the violent order of governance, and shame can serve as emotional evidence of this. Also, unlike the guilt of taking issue with a specific action, shame provides a clue to how modern principals are organized in the novel in terms of taking issue with the whole self. The male characters with frail and impoverished bodies that often appear in Kim Seung-ok’s novels show a link between social shame and the physical. Also, Kim Seung-ok's novel is ashamed because it rejects his hometown and attempts to live a new life but repeats the movements of his return and direction without adapting. As a result, these male characters slowly incorporate themselves into the modern self, and in the process, they see the shame of the unfit and the evil of the modern. This responds to the double role of ‘self-reflecting behavior of self’ and ‘rehabilitating of members of society.’ While compassion is generally thought to be moral, in the novel, it reveals its limitations by being frustrated. This shows the possibility that shame is not a sense of pity in the novel, but rather a sense of pity in the context of the frustration of compassion. Compassion does not work positively, even if it is not limited to self-pity, but rather makes things worse. On the other hand, shame confirms the ethical potential of the ‘weak subject’ as a modern subject. This brings compassion back to its ethical possibilities and brings it back to its current possibilities.