본문 바로가기
  • Home

A Study about Pathologic symbolism in the novels of Choi, Myung-ik: Focusing on disease motive and anymal symbol in 『peaieain』 and 『spring and a newly constructed road』

Heung Nam Jeon 1

1한려대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

I wrote this paper to find the meaning of disease and anymal symbol in the novels of Choi, Myung-ik. Many characters in 1930's modernism novels suffer from diseases. This trend is found in the novels of Choi, Myung-ik. So in this paper, I focused on this trend in 『peaieain』and 『spring and a newly constructed road』 which are written by Choi, Myung-ik. First, characters in 『peaieain』are unemployed teachers who fall into sorrow and dispair because of isolation. They suffer from diseases. At the same time, the appearance of animals in 『peaieain』contribute to materialization of this trend. Anymal symbol in 『peaieain』is not only description of background. Anymal symbol is closely connected to the disease of characters. This means that metaphor about animals is connected to shaping up the personality of characters and the theme of 『peaieain』. So in 『peaieain』, metaphor about animals is used in definitizing abstract meanings, making new meanings and extending denotation. Because of this reason, I think that metaphor about animals has rhetorical peculiarity. cat's mating in spring night is described in 『spring and a newly constructed road』. And this description metaphorically show a sex problem which is main topic of 『spring and a newly constructed road』. Especiallly, we can understand the sexual desire in 『spring and a newly constructed road』 by the animal impulse because of the metaphor about animals. Death of Geuniea shows negative awareness of the modernization which is represented by the sexual desire. On analysis, the disease of characters in 『peaieain』and 『spring and a newly constructed road』 is identical to the self-consciousness of chosun intellectuals who faced the turning point of modern capitalism. The metaphor about animals and plants appear in the novels of Choi, Myung-ik. And I think that this metaphor is effectively contributed to the personality of characters, main theme and narrative development. Finding concretely this trend in the novels of Choi, Myung-ik would be conducted by widening subject of analysis and comparing other modernism novels. But I leave it to the next challenge.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.