최인훈 소설에 나타난 ‘H읍’의 의미 연구 -「두만강」(1970)과 『화두』(1994)를 중심으로 = A Study on the Meaning of “H-Eup” in Choi In-hun’s Novel - Focusing on “Duman Gang”(1970) and “Hwadu”(1994)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to examine the meaning of “H-eup” as it appears in Choi In-hun’s novel. To this end, it analyzes the representations of H-eup in “Duman Gang” and “Hwadu”, and considers its historical-political and narrative-aesthetic placeness. H-eup seemingly refers to Hoeryeong, the author’s hometown. However, it does not remain merely an actual place name or a lost hometown for the narrator. In “Duman Gang,” H-eup is represented as a military border town of imperialism and as a place where the hybridity of colonial everyday life is revealed. In “Hwadu”, H-eup is represented as a place that triggers the family’s first exile amid the communist reorganization of society after liberation. In this sense, H-eup is not a place where the consciousness of exile repeatedly found in Choi In-hun’s novel is given in a fixed form from the beginning. Rather, it is a place reconstructed as a memory of departure under the conditions of the late colonial military border town and the political reorganization after liberation.
Meanwhile, the representations of H-eup in both works share the common feature of being depicted as the oral lifeworld of childhood. H-eup is a place where rumors from the border gather and where the stories of Gyeongseon, the grandmother, and the mother are shared. Here, rumors, oral storytelling, and family recollections preserve experiences of political violence and departure within the oral sensibility of childhood and reconstruct them at the later moment of narration. In this regard, H-eup can be understood as a place where memory is transmitted in a communal manner. Such an oral environment provides an important clue for understanding the consciousness of memory and narrative identity in Choi In-hun’s literature. It also serves as a point of reference for understanding the author’s later dramatic works, which transform folktales and legends. Through this analysis, this study demonstrates that H-eup is not simply a “lost hometown,” but a place where experiences of political departure, the oral environment, and narrative memory overlap and are repeatedly resignified.