This study selects Oh, Jung-hee and Park, Wan-suh as the representative women writers since 1945. This is the reason why the one shows the stream of 'the Novel of Awakening'and the other the stream of 'Feminist Bildungsroman'. Focusing upon the corr...
This study selects Oh, Jung-hee and Park, Wan-suh as the representative women writers since 1945. This is the reason why the one shows the stream of 'the Novel of Awakening'and the other the stream of 'Feminist Bildungsroman'. Focusing upon the correlativity of modernity and gender consciousness in the works of those writers, this dissertation is intended to explicate the characteristics of modernity in the women novels.
Firstly, the work of two writers is framed by bildungsroman as the narrative of woman's self-discovery. The whole world of two writers' work reveals the narrative of a unitary self in the course of whose life is continued from childhood, youth, manhood, to old age. It means that the process of female protagonist's physical maturity and self-discovery is correspondingly unfolded. This feature in the work of two writers suggests that female protagonist feels the crisis of her own identity serious. Bildungsroman is designated to a narrative form that a young protagonist searches for one's social role and identity in the unsettled society. In this form, a youth's straying and searching is the mark emphasizing the dynamics and unstableness of modernity.
Secondly, the space of the work of two writers is the central mark of modernity. For example, the major space in Oh, Jung-hee's novel is moved to (1) the street of market/in a town, (2) in the house, (3) one's own room. It shows densely the characteristics of a female protagonist's experiencing the modernity: she experiences (1) a yearning for the modernity, (2) a disillusionment at the modernity, (3) a planning of the new modernity. Also the major space in Park, Wan-suh' novel is moved to (1) the ridge of hill (Nongbaweegogae), (2) in and out the Four Gates(the circumferences of Hyunzuhdong & Donahmdong), (3) the new residence district in the Four Gates, (4) the outskirts of the new residence district. This movement of space presents compressively that a female protagonist experiences (1) an ambivalence to the modernity, (2) a disillusionment at the modernity, (3) a negative fascination to the modernity, (4) a planning of the new modernity.
Thirdly, comparing the perspective of gender consciousness, the novels of Oh, Jung-hee show the hysterical gender consciousness, while the novels of Park, Wan-suh reveal the fomalized gender consciousness. The hysterical gender consciousness indicates the resistant consciousness against the ideologized female gender that is expressed in a female protagonist's reaction to institutionalized femininity and maternity. In Oh, Jung-hee's novels, female protagonists experience the established femininity and maternity as a mechanism oppressing a woman's life. On the other hand, the formalized gender consciousness means internalizing the gender ideology of sexual discrimination and the newly rising gender role at that time. In Park, Wan-suh's novels, female protagonists are aware of their gender, sensitively responding to the ideology that is imposed upon a woman, or an alternative gender that is newly rising.
Fourthly, considering the gender reflected in two writer's writing, Oh, Jung-hee's novels shows the feature of feminine writing predominant, while Park, Wan-suh's novels the features of masculine writing and feminine writing coexist. It has something to do with the following aspect; the one portrays a female character that persistently denies the gender ideology of the patriarchal society, while the other depicts a female character that grows up in the antagonistic relationship with it.
Until now, this study has tried to approach the modernity of women novels that have not been paid attention to. The previous arguments on modernity focused on the novels of male writers monolithically. In the future, this study may have to be materialized and refined in the more systematic methodology.