박경리 문학사상 연구 (3)

A Study on Park, Gyeong Ri s Literary Thoughts(3)-Park, Gyeong Ri s Early Novel and Existentialism

This study aims at revealing the co-relation between Park, Gyeong Ri s early novel and existentialism, especially Albert Camus.According to Park s confession, she was enthusiastic over Camus representative novel-The Stranger and The Pest, and took no notice of Sartre s novel - The Way of Liberty in the 1950s. Thus, it is not strange for one to expect to find the existential traits in Park s early novel. As is generally known, Albert Camus characteristic literary thoughts are absurdity and rebellion . Therefore, this study focused on searching the elements of absurdity and rebellion in Park s early novel. There are three types of existential traits in Park s early novel. They are as follows - Narrative of absurdity, Narrative of rebellion, and Narrative of both absurdity and rebellion and trying to overcome them. Park s literary works such as Calculation and Black Black White White reveal Narrative of absurdity, in which the main character(self/ego) tries to grasp the world by one s own principle but only to fail and get frustrated. Her other works - Scissors and Age of Distrust show Narrative of rebellion, in which the main character (self/ego) rebels against the absurd situation. Finally, The Floating Island demonstrate Narrative of both absurdity and rebellion. In this literary work, the main character(self/ego) tries to escape from the consciousness of existentialism and to gain solidarity with other living beings. In sum, through this research one can conclude that Park, Gyeong Ri strongly expressed existential consciousness in her early novels. However, from The Floating Island she seeks to discard existentialism. Instead, she gradually gains other visions such as solidarity and life.