탈북자 수기에 나타난 감정과 도덕

Abstract

In this article, I examine the emotions and morals shown in memoirs written by North Korean defectors in the 2000s. Memoir is the form of writing by North Korean defectors that has been most widely published. Since the 1990s, as North Korea went through the ‘Arduous March’ period, the number of defectors surged, and the characteristics of their memoirs changed significantly. In the memoirs, their emotions and morals tend to be ambivalent, and their narratives reveal both the universal circumstances of North Korean defectors and each defector’s particular circumstances. Since the 2000s, North Korean defectors have made publications in various forms, and yet, memoirs remain the most popular. It is important for them to describe their indelible experiences and ordeals of escape, and reveal the shocking realities of North Korean society and its regime. However, their memoirs are sometimes met by readers’ fatigue or indifference due to repeated themes and content. As time has gone by, North Korean defectors’ memoirs have come to receive more attention in the US and Europe than in South Korea. However, there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding of the gap between the defectors’ narratives and foreigners’ interests in them. There are complex layers regarding where the defectors’ voices and foreign readers’ acceptance meet, and where a writer’s political stance meets a publisher’s commercial decisions. Noting this, in this paper, I investigated issues of emotions, morals and capital found in several memoirs by North Korean defectors published after 2000: Song at Concentration Camp by Kang Cheol-hwan, Coming Out Into the World by Shin Dong-hyeok, and Full Control Area by An Myeong-cheol. These memoirs broadly cover issues of North Korean defectors, including problems at labor camps for political prisoners, crossing national borders for escape, issues of human rights, and feminism. The authors continue to engage in social activities through publication and media exposure, and we need to examine their views as North Korean defectors and how genuine these works are. In this regard, I examine various facets of emotions and morals observed in the three narratives, considering what they intend to communicate by talking about themselves, their relationship with their audience, and the social implications of their narratives.