신소설 속 인천 항구의 공간 표상

Abstract

The study on literary representation of Incheon as a modern city consistently become an object of attention as a locality of literature and imagined geographies. The study on the space representation of Incheon in modern novel is centered around two landmarks of an open port and Gyeongin railroad line. Generally, the discussions focus on the novel since the 1930s, the discussions on sinsoseol are yet insignificant. If we think of a variety of ways how Incheon is represented in sinsoseol, we must study on not only a creative sinsoseol but also an adapted sinsoseol. Because the social situation of its time is reflected in an adapted story, we can find the diverse features of Incheon in an adapted story. This study makes use of the sinsoseol corpus that The Academy of Korean Studies construct. After we search Incheon geographic names information in the sinsoseol corpus, we select the novels that are closely bound up with development of story, not as a simple background. The examples of such novels are Hangrakdo(行樂圖), Myeongwoljeong(明月亭), Dugyeonseong(杜鵑聲), and Moranbyeong(牡丹屛). And we add to Wolmido(月尾島) and Seaside(海岸) that are not contained within the sinsoseol corpus. Incheon was a little fishing village that was full of reeds in a vast beach before the opening of its port, but became the arena of the struggle among powers of imperialism because of geopolitical characteristics as the throat of a capital city. This study shows the space representation of port of Incheon in sinsoseol. Because the space in a novel is closely connected with a character, this study is focusing on the aspect of Incheon as a open port through various characters in sinsoseol. Around the 20th century, Incheon jumped into a dynamic position because of geopolitical factors. Students, political exiles, laborers, pirates, soldiers(foreign soldiers), patients, merchants, and trafficked women stayed in Incheon. In the mixed time of pre-modernity and modernity, there are pirates all over in Incheon, and they committed human trafficking without hesitation. The activities of pirates are contained in Myeongwoljeong, Moranbyeong, and Hangrakdo. Pirates trafficked women and men indiscriminately. Women are trafficked at a bar in Incheon area, men are hunted for forced labor and are sold in China. These criminal acts are tolerated by spoiled officials. In a sinsoseol Dugyeonseong, soldiers and merchants immerse themselves in accumulating wealth during the Russo-Japanese War. Merchants try to acquire wealth by procuring war supplies in port of Incheon as the behind base of the Russo-Japanese War. Soldiers and civilians use the Russo-Japanese War to seek their fortunes. Japanese Park(or Incheon Park) appears as a main place in sinsoseol Seaside. Japanese Park is situated at the site of Incheon girls' vocational high school. Japanese Park was made to transplant the identity of Japanese Empire in Joseon. This political intention is hidden in this novel. Characters in this novel accept Japanese Park as the everyday living space to go sightseeing by a car and to take for a walk in the park. Japanese Park is the space imitating the culture of Japanese Empire, but they have forgotten that. Japanese Empire try to establish ruling order in Joseon by the production of the colonial space as Japanese Park, but a critical eye upon this Japan's strategy is not found in a novel Seaside. In the final, Incheon in a sinsoseol is represented as a boiling space of worldly desires in a fierce wave of capitalism.