‘주체의 자기확인’을 위한 죽음 순례

A Pilgrimage to Death for the “Self-Affirmation of the Subject” : Lee Sang's theory on 「December 12」

In 「December 12」 , Lee Sang talked about family conflicts and the sharp sensitivity in late teens under the Nietzschean influences and according to the logic of colonized Korea. By taking death as a parameter, he raised metaphysical questions about death and life to affirm himself as the subject. After the fourth piece in the series, he actively demonstrated such a spirit of his as a writer in the later parts. Seven deaths including his own suicide take × to a pilgrimage to death through moving across different time and space. The early death caused by extreme poverty causes him to further concentrate on the meaning of life. In the later part, he resorted to his will to revive in raising himself as the subject to the metaphysical and ontological stage. That is, he started to discuss and embody the matter of death in full-scale. Clearly exhibited in that process was his attempt to affirm himself as the subject. As time passed by, × changed from passive self-affirmation based on despair to active and aggressive self-affirmation. While the deaths around him resulted in his forced self-affirmation in a negative environment based on extreme poverty and a sense of futility, his own death was his voluntary self-affirmation to complete the whole subject by receiving a spirit.