The intention of this study is to demonstrate that Shin Dong-moon's poetry is the result from keen and painful speculation according to the changes in his understanding of the world and that its essential qualities are able to be explained by analysis...
The intention of this study is to demonstrate that Shin Dong-moon's poetry is the result from keen and painful speculation according to the changes in his understanding of the world and that its essential qualities are able to be explained by analysis of poetic subject's attitude change with historical experiences. For this I will divide his poetry into two parts by the 4. 19 revolution. His former poetry in 1950's illustrates the experience of Korean Civil War, negating the world and old values, while the latter in 1960's represents the break down of early ideals and social irregularities due to the failure of the 4. 19 revolution, through self-negation.
The changes in Shin Dong-moon's poetry are based on the changes in poetic subject's attitude as sensitive responses about social and historical circumstances. In chapter 2 on this study, I will analysis how the poetic subject internalize experiences of Korean Civil War and, from the process of inner-interpretation, how it has been changed, reading a few poems in 1950's more closely. In chapter 3, I will examine the poetic methodology in his 1960's poetry, in which the poetic subject reveals the irregular social situations and asserts the commitment to real world undergoing the 4. 19 Revolution, the 5. 16 military takeover and 'pure poetry versus commitment poetry' controversy.
A war destroys the whole foundation for individual's life. The Korean Civil War not only shattered the hope for building a modern nation to its very foundation since the restoration of independence but also caused strong disbelief about human common reason. It brought about confusion and schizophrenia of human subject. The existing beliefs and ideologies were in doubt and the desire for utopia was frustrated. Faced to such a desperate situation, a new poetic methodology should be required.
His poetry started as the denial and resistance over traditional values after undergoing Korean Civil War. He denies the earlier poetic theories focusing on ideal, lyrical and unreal world. In this, the attitude of poetic subject is expressed by a tragic view of the world, which makes the subject disrupted. But such an attitude is necessary to establish a new ideology when ideas are separated away with reality. Shin Dong-moon makes it his poetic methodology to sense the world flesh and fell, and translate it into words keenly. Internalization of fragmentation in poetic subject includes the anxiety consciousness over the world. He makes a point of shrewd consciousness about poetry, which is embodied in repetition and irony. It mainly takes the shapes of prose poem or interior monologue. His negative attitude as a methodology to overcome devastating conditions of the time, symbolized as 'flying(floating) ballon' leads to a poetical exploration to heal the bitter wounds of war.
In 1960's, Shin Dong-Moon expresses in poems the shock and despair from the convulsion of the social-political conditions from the 4. 19 revolution to the 5. 16 military takeover. These poems of the time are classified as 'commitment poem'. It means to him that 'Involvement' is based on the moral responsibility that every intellectual should take charge of. The most important thing here is spontaneous participation and practice of daily life. In a broad and simple sense, His 'commitment poem' is almost similar to a kind of involvement with real world. The poetic self's voice to bring about massages directly is particularly associated with this. For example, straightforward tones, use of less refined words, frank political statements are salient on his poems of the time.
Undergoing early 1960's brief freedom and the following reverse, he expresses the nihilism of the time by self-negation. He emphasizes poetry's social involvement and value of life at this time. Seeing the world tragic, the gap between reality and ideal gets wider. When the pessimism over the world turns toward the poetic subject itself, its self-abasement is expressed as defeats and despair on both reality and ideal. Furthermore, the diminished subject as a helpless victim now becomes the object of sarcasm, disclosing the irregular condition of existence and accusing the world outside. Social criticism through self-denial aims to recipients(readers)' ethos by the medium of poetry. That's why unrefined political messages or raw poetic dictions often appear in those poems of the time.
Shin Dong-moon's poetic pursuit all the time from 1950's to 1960's is a far distant aspiration to reach the meeting point of life and poetry. It is proved by the fact that his poetry is based on a remarkably deep pathos which denies not only the world but also the poetic subject itself, echoing darkly.
* Key Words : Shin Dong-moon, war, subject, 1950s modernism, anxiety consciousness, involvement theory.