1950-1960년대 한말숙 소설과 사랑의 (불)가능성

Abstract

In the 1950s, Han Mal-sook, one of the new female writers, resisted the discourse of the times and embodied the desires of female subjects through “love.” Existing evaluations of Han’s novels have considered them as disconnected from the early 1950s, which embodies apres-girl's desires and sensuous sexuality, and from the 1960s, which was sealed into the inner world of middle-class women within the institutionalized world. However, Han Mal-sook's novels can be understood continuously in that romantic love, passionate love, and women's independent narcissism or desires continue to compete inside and outside the institutional boundaries. Her early works in the 1950s depict a female subject who escapes out of the boundaries from romantic love through passionate love by actively embodying the apres-girl's desire that dictates the desire of a denied woman. Dojeong, written in 1960, is a transitional work that shows the process of Han’s literary world changing, embodying the possibility of expanding the narcissistic love of young women who try to expand their boundaries instead of escaping. Although such young women's independence does not last and female characters settle inside the home after the mid-1960s, Han Mal-sook continues to seek love that does not conflict with women's desires through subjects who criticize romantic love from within the system, and between the writing of motherly and worldly selfishness.