‘영혼의 축제’와 ‘자유’

'Soul's festival' and 'Freedom' in Vasily Makarovich Shukshin's prose

소비에뜨 시기의 대표적인 농촌작가 바실리 마까로비치 슉쉰(1929-1974)의 창작의 처음이자 마지막을 구 성하는 중요한 토대를 이루는 것은 다양한 인물에 대한 세심한 연구이다. 작가는 희극적, 비극적 유형 등 다양 한 유형의 주인공들을 독자들에게 소개함으로써 사회의 문제를 고발하기도 하고, 일상 속에서 우리가 잃어버 린 채 살아가곤 하는, 소박하지만 소중한 진리, 그리고 그런 진리와 연관되어 있는 도덕성을 일깨우기도 한다. 아울러 독자들에 대한 예술적 메시지를 고조시키기 위해 작가는 비극이라는 장르를 십분 활용하기도 하는데, 여기서 그는 자신의 개성적인 주인공들에게 실존적 물음을 강요한다. 나아가 슉쉰의 성숙한 주인공이 보여주 는 비극적인 삶을 통해 독자들이 얻게 되는 카타르시스는 그 어떤 형태의 논설보다도 강한 영향력을 가지고 있으며, 붉은 깔리나」는 이런 슉쉰의 예술체계의 가장 높은 봉우리에 위치해 있다.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the artistic peculiarity of rural prose by ex-soviet writer Vasily Makarovich Shukshin(1929-1974), who had developed his own artistic system from the realistic depiction of social environments into the search of spiritual essence of russian peoples in 1970s. In coincidence with such an attempt to depict more profound themes from ideological aspect, Shukshin's characters had also evolved into more complex personalities. His heroes, who make up the essence of the artistic system of their own author, has some noteworthy features, such as mistrusting ready made truth, and searching for true aim of life, and hesitating between the righteous and the bad people, etc. The artistic peculiarity of Shukshin's prose is to be found in his manner of developing narrative. In other words, several crucial constituent elements(such as plot, setting, narration) of narratives converge on the hero's personality, and the images of characters comprise the framework of the whole story. By introducing to us readers different characters, Shukshin aims to provide us with spaces enough to criticize social ills, to considerate the condition of ourselves, and to remind us of the lost truthfulness and precious morals, which we are likely to often disregard. In this respect, it is very logical that he often compelled his beloved characters to be in the most crucial dilemma to decide between life and death, and to solve the most complicated existential problems. In effect, the so called 'artistic catharsis' which is engendered by the tragic features of such characters is considered to be more dramatic and stronger than any other philosophical or political thesis. As an example, Shukshin's later work [Snowball Berry Red], which deserves to be esteemed as his most famous and most ripen work, shows us all that features.