백석의 기행시편에 나타난 장소의 심상지리

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the imaginative geography molded by places in Baek Seok's travel poetry and to see how different it is from the representation of Joseon that emerged from the imaginative geography of the Japanese Empire as part of Joseon Historical Remains Survey and Preservation Project under the supervision of the Japanese Government General of Korea at the end of the colonial period. Poems such as 'Namhaeng sicho‘, 'Hamju sicho', 'Seohaeng sicho' that are written during travels and marked as serial poems by the poet, poems directly or indirectly describing experiences of the narrator who left home and wandered around and poems presumed to have been sent from Sin-gyeong in Manju can be read as travel poetry. Baek Seok often left his home, Jeongju at Peongbuk and stayed in other places to study abroad in Japan, or to work, travel and wander. His experiences of leaving home were reflected in his travel poetry. This paper paid attention to the fact that his experiences of leaving home were very frequent and continuous and that they were reflected in his travel poetry. In Baek Seok's 'Namhaeng sicho‘ and poems written after his travel to southern regions including Tongyeong, ’streets' and 'markets' appeared as the places where one experience common people's life that 'should exist.' In general, travel poetry or travel essays do no go beyond describing the areas or details of the trip; however, Baek Seok's travel poetry, especially his serial poem 'N'amhaeng sicho,' portray the place to reflect the narrator's wishes. In travel poetry, he rouses the present that he has lost by infusing the past time into the place of description or by depicting the place as the narrator wish it to be. In serial poems 'Hamju sicho' and 'Seohaeng sicho', 'Bukgwan' and 'mountain' appeared as the place where the narrator expressed the feeling of loneliness that the northern regions brought about. In 'Bukgwan', one of the serial poems in 'Hamju sicho', Baek Seok presents the history of Bukgwan region diachronically. By comparing present Bukgwan where the speaker stays with the Bukgwan of the past, he highlights the reality it is faced with and at the same time makes Bukgwan function as a synecdoche of Joseon. A diachronic overview of the history of Bukgwan region has different nature from the survey of this region conducted by the Japanese Government General of Korea. Mountains frequently appear in serial poems of 'Hamju sicho' and 'Seohaeng sicho' and are read as universal space because the specific name of each mountain is hidden. They are chosen as the space of passive reclusion and avoidance and described as a place where the lethargic poetic self visits when he feels lonely in reality. In Manju poems which I also view as travel poetry, 'room' and 'street' of foreign land often appear as places in which one can overcome the self and form solidarity. Room is often described as a place reflecting lonely inner world of the narrator that enable him to overcome himself. Also, street is depicted as a place where the narrator observes people of foreign land with the eye of a lonesome stranger and restores the feeling of solidarity with them. Places described in Baek Seok's travel poetry function as a space completely different from the imaginative geography of the Japanese Empire molded by the Jeoson Historical Remains Survey and Preservation Project. It is a place that the poet dreamed and thought of as something that 'should exist' and a place of solidarity with people living there, and hence presents a possiblity of a different spatial representation of Joseon, one that is not subsumed by the imaginative geography of the Japanese Empire.