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'Imagined' Detective and the Original faces of colonial cities- Focusing on Kim Nae-seong's Novel Ma-In

Kim Hee Kyung 1

1서울대학교 국어국문학과

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to examine the literary representation of the colonial city ‘Gyeongseong’ and the ‘Detective’ in Kim Nae-seong’s novel Ma-in -which was published in 1939. The most important thing to understand about the literary worlds of Kim Nae-seong is 'space', especially Nae-seong's cities. In general, studies about Nae-seong's urban spaces focus on the fact that the cities shown his novels are no different from the cities in 'modern' Western detective novels, and the studies point out that this aspect is an uncritical 'imitation or transplantation' of exotic frameworks. However, cities that is shaped by Kim Nae-seong are characterized as real spaces of Gyeongseong and 'modernized' specific places, and then function as a space to highlight the characteristics of 'the colonial city'. This paper examines the process of constituting the word 'detective, and focuses on the features that this word has double meanings ('a subject of 'intellectual reasoning'' and 'informant'). These features have possibility that detective can be read as a problematic figure who may strengthen or disturb the order of Imperial Japan. At this point, detectives as original meaning (in Western detective novels) couldn't be existed in the colonial city Gyeongseong, so the existence of detective was 'imagined'. Kim Nae-seong investigate the crimes in Gyeongseong with eyes of 'imagined' detective, and through this, the 'original face' of colonial city appears in his works. Colonial separation can be considered by examining the chase scene in Ma-in, and through the examination, one can 'restore' the Gyeongseong in regards to 'imagined geography'. However, the 'imagined' detective in Joseon seems to suffer the fate of 'disappearing'. The 'spy or anti-espionage' narrative appearing in Nae-seong's later novels shows that dual characteristics of detective are eventually converged into the order of Imperial Japan. That used to answer the author's question concerning Ma-in: the existence of an intelligent and objective 'subject' who can 'detect' Imperial Japan in Joseon possible.

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