‘중국인 거리’로 표상되는 세계, 그리고 여성의 정체성 —오정희의 「중국인 거리」

Abstract

Oh, Jeonghee’s 「Chinatown」is dealing with the event that ‘I’ have experienced in ‘chinatown’ from second grade in elementary school to sixth grade. We can grasp the full significance of this works when the stages of development in ‘I’ is related to the meaning of space shown in this work. In this work, ‘chinatown’ is differentiated from ‘port city’. ‘Port city’ is set to the space dominated by the discourse such as the violent military culture represented as the US armed forces, and the distorted capitalist economy, and the ideology of anti-communist and everything. In contrast, ‘chinatown’ is set to the space free of domination discourse like a lonely ‘island’. Against this backdrop, ‘I’ am growing up physically and shows drastic change mentally. At first, ‘I’ am habituated to domination discourse. Gradually, ‘I’ refuse to be habituated to domination discourse. Ultimately, ‘I’ set up the world represented as ‘chinatown’ as the directing point of growth. The growth process in ‘I’ for four years can be divided into next two steps. The first step deal with the content that ‘I’ is habituated to domination discourse such as the violence of the US armed forces, the distorted economy, the ideology of anti-communist, and refuse to be habituated to domination discourse. The second step deal with the content that ‘I’ experience the animal life of female pressed on domination discourse such as the patriarchy ideology and the male chauvinism, and refuse to such a life, and want to establish the true identity of female through the world represented as ‘chinatown’. As a result, the menarche in ‘I’ acquire the significance that it is the first step toward establishing the true identity of female.