환상적 진술로 재현한 생태학적 전망의 가능성 연구 - 최인훈의 소설 「바다의 편지」에 담긴주술적 넋두리와 죽음 극복

Abstract

This research examines the novel “Letter of the Sea” by Choi In-hoon. The novel contains a number of peculiarities as fiction. First, the story is told through the protagonist’s narration, devoid of a series of events and characters. Second, the narrator, the protagonist of the novel, thinks and tells the story as if he is alive, although he has physically died and readers cannot experience him in real life. Furthermore, he leaves room for the possibility that he overcomes death and temporal limitation to be reborn. Third, the author uses his previous works from years ago and juxtapose them in the latter half of his novel. One work cited in the novel is a poem while the other is his writing that emphasizes poetic symbolism. I chose Choi's work for my research because, first, as a expert in poetic analysis, I found it interesting to analyze the work whose critical component is poetic in nature. Second, the work highlights generational message to overcome crisis and the importance of poets in delivering such message. I access that it is in the same context as my previous argument that ecological poets’ metaphorical narration is critical in resolving ecological 128 문학과 환경 15권 1호crisis. In reality, it is difficult to wholeheartedly embrace the idea of rebirth of a character who overcame death and realized the universal truth. However, the novel’s fantastical component created by the dead’s complaints, along with crossing of mystical voices, allows readers to accept such peculiar message. Thus, one of the biggest accomplishments of the work lies in its enactment of this unbelievable perspective as a fiction through poetic metaphorical narration. The fact that the protagonist draws its power to overcome limitations from one’s longing for mother and love towards humanity further adds significance to this work. There are mainly two characteristics and accomplishments of this novel. First, it effectively employs poetic narration to freely criticize and overcome unavoidable death faced by humans and negative aspects of life. As a result, it adds significance to the poetic narration by implying that the poet’s intermittent realization of the world’s providence is not a epiphany of an individual, but in fact an inherence from and accumulation of the predecessor’s awareness going beyond temporal and historical limitations. Second, it reminds us all of the important role of eco-poets.