미군 ‘위안부’ 재현과 자기서사의 틈새―안일순의 『뺏벌』(1995)⋅김연자의 『아메리카 타운 왕언니, 죽기 오 분 전까지 악을 쓰다』(2005)를 중심으로―

Abstract

In the 1980s, women campaigning against sex tourism began to recognize the connection between the comfort women system and the broader sex industry. This led them to support U.S. military comfort women in Korean camp towns. By 1990, university students organized solidarity activities to highlight camp town issues as a significant women's issue in Korean society. A major turning point came in 1992, when the brutal murder of a comfort woman by a U.S. soldier sparked national interest in the issue. This event inspired the novel The Bbatbul(1995) by Ahn Il-soon, who actively engaged with camp town communities. The Bbatbul depicts the harsh realities faced by women in camp towns, highlighting the structural violence that forced many impoverished Korean women into military sex work. The novel portrays these women as victims of familial and societal abuse, who find a semblance of community within the camp town, despite its ghettoized conditions. Intimate relationships between the women are depicted, particularly in their collective resistance against U.S. military crimes following the murders of two comfort women. The novel draws from the testimony of Kim Yeon-ja, whose life shares significant parallels with the fictional narrative. Kim's autobiography, published later, reveals her complex sexual identity, challenging heterosexual norms through her relationships with other women in the camp town. This environment is depicted as a lesbian continuum, where women support and protect each other. However, Kim's narrative also includes elements of self-destructive behavior and violence against other women, adding layers of complexity to her portrayal. In contrast, The Bbatbul simplifies these dynamics, focusing on the romanticized relationship between the characters Seungja and Okju, making Okju's death more poignant. The novel omits much of the internal violence within the camp town, in order to recast the women as fighters for liberation rather than merely oppressed individuals. This omission, however, limits the exploration of a more integrated identity for comfort women. Kim Yeon-ja's autobiography, published a decade later, seeks to create a self-liberating narrative that transcends the testimonial format, offering a deeper and more personal account of her experiences, and addressing the complexities overlooked in the novel.