黃順元 장편 <나무들 비탈에 서다>의 실존주의 문학적 성격

The Existential Characteristics of Hwang Soon-won's Novel, Trees Stand on the Hill

It seems that Trees Stand on the Hill, one of the Hwang Soonwon's representative novels can be categorized into existential novels. It is because the novel shows an absurd human condition, nihilism, despair from the radical experience of anxiety, and the character' submergence into pessimism. The examples are shown in the following negative reactions to the society. First, an important minor character, Dongho committed a suicide, denying the attribution of animals in human beings. Second, another minor character, Sukki is submerged into a failure, disoriented in life as an existence, Third, the other character, Yoongoo shows the cruel type in his own selfishness. Fourth, the hero of the novel, Hyuntae came to the self-destruction, living a life by the wildlife and the instinct. For those reasons the novel almost comes to an end, showing the defeated aesthetics of the characters on the basis of nihilism and pessimism. However a woman characte, Sukyi tried to show her own will to live, even though she was adultered and casted by the surrounding characters. We can find a light of hope for salvating humans in the novel. We can reach the conclusion that the novel, Trees Stand on the Hill can be categorized into the existential novel with high arttistery and idelism.