감성의 형성 : 고통, 말할 수 없는 것: 역사적 기억에 대해 문학은 말할 수 있는가 = Pain, the Unspeakable: A question regarding literary capacity for historical memory

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ever since the modern era, pain of humankind has sustained undetachable tie with totalitarian violence which is spread over the background of the history overwhelmingly. The pain itself represents the agony which is derived from the acceptance of “ourselves” destructed thoroughly. For this reason the pain of humankind requires complicated consideration including political, ethical and human aspect in itself. In this study, the question regarding whether literature holds the capacity for historical memory leads profound examination on the historical memory and pain in the novels of those who represent modernism literature of 1960s, like Kim Seung-ok, Seo Jung-in and Lee Chung-jun. Their novels deal with the memory on historical sphere of the 4ㆍ3 Resistance in Jeju-Do, Yeo-sun incident, Korean war, April 19th revolution, May 16th coup d`etat and Yushin system. By describing the humankind``s pain within historical memory, their works ponder the issues on the origin and prevalent tendency and the reason why it is duplicated and persistent. Clinging to one`s death as a historical memory, the novels delineate the pain left behind the history, the dying and living, the half-being on the procedure of dying, or the non-being such as a dead body or one in an urn of funeral ashes. The remains rather than historic event itself is mainly the object of reinterpretation and all surroundings of human being as well. In these novels whole condition under Yushin system of 1970s, the apex of historical pain, is a mara experience which allows no distinction between reality and illusion and deprives all kind of humanness, a prison of no life time return and a camp which provides dead-alive condition and dead coming out eventually. In other words, the history we have gone through is a period that made us be ashamed of our human being by establishing totalitarian logic as a domineering notion which causes destruction of physical and mental status. Furthermore, it was like a camp that transforms human nature into useless existence in order to construct utopian society, where there is no difference between human and non-human available but shame at our being human. The pessimistic tone toward the future collapse does not necessarily incline to nihilism or defeatism though. The writers consistently meditate on history with indifferent stand point without any interest, desire and passion, as a method for an existence who is no longer useful in any aspect to survive the atmosphere where there is no human demand get accommodated. Located between the useless and the inert, these novels reveal the cruelty of history and reflect anonymous pain and death lied on the outside of historical territory. Here is the vulnerability as a literary politics. Successors of literature naturally inherit the reason of continuing to tell the historical memory as the pain get exacerbated. Though limited as the most unrealistic genre in debt of imagination, literature has kept saying about the pain and historical pain and should go on accordingly.