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Lee Kwang-soo and Mo Yoon-sook –Mo Yoon-sook's Wren’s Elegy as a way of 'overcoming' Lee Kwang-soo
Chunwon Research journal
Abbr :
Chunwon Research journal
2019, (16), pp.147-182
Publisher : Chunwon Research Society
Research Area : Korean Literature
2019, (16), pp.147-182
Publisher : Chunwon Research Society
Research Area : Korean Literature
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This paper discussed how Mo Yun-sook's Wren’s Elegy’s speaker Wren reminds the author Mo Yun-sook, and Simon reminds Lee Kwang-soo. Based on this, this paper showed that this work can be read as Mo's attempt to ‘overcome’ Lee Kwang-soo, and at the same time it can be read as Mo's self-defense. The January 1937 edition describes a woman who was obedient to the teachings of an unsophisticated, unrealistic and idealized male. But soon she criticizes the male's male-centered enlightenment by realizing his teachings lack women. In the 1949 edition, which was immediately after Korea's liberation, communist-oriented character calls Simon a "national traitor" and Mo criticizes it to self-defense of her cooperation with Japan. In the 1954 edition after the Korean War, Wren saves Simon from North Korea, and escapes to the South. Through this, she distanced herself from Lee Kwang-soo, who was kidnapped to North Korea and was not known whether he was alive or not, and emphasizes her loyalty to South Korea. In conclusion, Wren has "overcame" Simon but she did not reflect on the violence of the enlightenment subject itself, acting as a more powerful enlightenment subject, and failing to overcome the title “Wren’s Elegy”.
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