희망의 한 풍경으로서 백석의 만주 시편

The scene of hope : Manju poetry written by Baek seok

Baek seok moved to Manju during the Policy Transformation period (1931-1945). During this period, Manju was an area overwhelming with the sentiments of political, economic, and cultural survival as a colony. For Baek seok, Manju was an area of pioneering and rehabilitation and his move to Manju was an act of searching for new possibilities. This paper aims to examine the implications of Baek seok’s move to Manju as well as to discuss the implications of Baek seok’s Manju poems presented between 1940 and 1941. Specifically, the paper focuses on how Baek seok overcame his disappointment with the Manju he experienced as opposed to the Manju he imagined. This concentration is an extension of the interest of how the multicultural citizens of Manju, who were split among sympathizing with the people of Chosun, the people of Japan, and the people of Manju, overcame the challenges of reality. The answers can be found from the ideas of the purity nature, the mentality of muk, and idle nature that are all expressed in the Manju poems. The appearance of Manju that he described in his poems was the hope that he materialized for the state. As a result, ‘towards Manju’ entails the movement of the tragedy of the colonial Chosun or the tragedy of Baek seok’s life, ‘away from Manju’ which implies freedom from Manju that was a spatial extension of tragedy.