고정된 언어에 붙들리지 않는 대화의 가능성 — 이청준 소설에 나타난 ‘전화’를 중심으로

Abstract

This article starts from the premise that the ‘telephone’ in Lee Cheong-joon’s novels is closely related to the intense inquiry of the writer on language, and not merely on the material level. The communication through the telephone is closely related to the property of ‘relational language’ defined by Lee Cheong-joon in that it requires mutual guarantee and agreement between the sender and receiver. In addition, since telephony constitutes context through the content of speech, mutual exchange has a considerable influence on leading the meaning of dialogue, and there is a possibility that the authenticity of the dialogue itself is doubtful. Also, a phone is also a medium for intensely forming intimacy and bond through intimate communication between two communicators. In this article on Lee Cheong-joon’s novels, an attempt is made to examine the aspect of representation of the properties of these telephones in parallel with the Lee’s language consciousness. In Lee’s novels, telephoning is usually semantically related to the emotional response and behavior of the recipient. The aspect of the representation of the telephone reflects the study on the related aspects of the ‘relational language’ and ‘existential language’ defined by Lee. “Floating Words” (1973) is a novel that reflects on the function of ‘relational language’. It shows the danger of deciding the reality by relying on the talk of the other party, and the importance of ‘existential language’ is further emphasized from these limitations. However, in the process of reaching this conclusion, the recipient interprets the caller’s words and behaves according to them. At this time, the recipient actively understands and acts on the language of the sender, and becomes the subject who introspectively searched for the relationship between the two language orders. On the other hand, “Abstract of Summer” (1982) shows the whole distrust of ‘relational language’ and the inclination to ‘existential language’. In the novels of Lee, the languages that convey the full meaning came mainly from the tongues and sounds of the Namdo. This novel is characterized by being written through letter writing. The voice of the speaker who wants to read beyond the character is connected with Lee’s voice who wishes to communicate freely beyond the normative language. However, the situation in which the ‘relational language’ represented by the telephone is completely denied implies the possibility that the ‘existential language’, an axis of the binational contradiction, becomes another closed communication circuit. In addition, Lee’s excessive distrust of ‘relational language’ is also projected that it is impossible to combine two language orders in the life of the city of Seoul.