金鶴泳 文學論

A Study on Kim Hak-yeong's Literature

In this study, I examined and inquired the true nature of agony found in the literature of Kim Hak-yeong and the meaning of his writings as a process of self-restoration. I took notice that unstable self-consciousness appears all the through his writings and pointer out the limitation in the context of literary configuration forming the 'universal others.' There are many examples of agony - stammering, family, fatherland and the 'obstacle' of history and reality in Kim Hak-yeong's literature. The writer as second generation Korean Japanese finds out the reason of his stammering in the 'depressing' family and the reason of the wretched family in the lost history of the fatherland; the consecutive chains seem to be real and complicated. These chains create the second agony with another concept through the ultimate pursuit toward the introvert agony. Although Kim Hak-yeong achieves some reality with literary language in describing mental state in order to configure 'universal others,' there exists a question whether his writings successfully reveal 'universal value' or 'self liberation.' I think that his endeavor to create 'universal others' han made his novels too private and his introverted territorialization, by private accusation, has negatively influenced the literary archetype for universality. His writings as chains of agony leads him to perceive 'estranged consciousness' which cannot solve the real problem of Korean Japanese and causee readers to fall into gloomy melancholy.