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Study on the tragedy in Sung - Han Kim’s short stories: focused on the stories in the 1950s

  • Korean Language & Literature
  • 2016, (97), pp.185-217
  • Publisher : Korean Language & Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Published : June 30, 2016

PARK, HAE-RANG 1

1성신여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims at inquiring the tragedy in Sung-Han Kim’s short stories. The major emotion in his 1950’s novel is tragedy. I explore the tragic reality suffered by main characters in the stories and the courses to overcome it, and then give great significance in understanding the true meaning which the writer tried to tell in his stories. The individual life was skewed, and the relationship between the individual and society was disharmonious in Korea in the 1950s. Sung-Han Kim was one among the writers who had a strong sense of social awareness. He wanted to make new ethical and social values which would be different from other writers. He tried to disclose and criticize the absurd reality and corrupted human beings at that time, and then correct and improve them. Despite the various descriptions and creative organization of content, Kim’s stories have been underestimated because they were thought not to propose a proper alternative to gloomy postwar period. I studied the main characters’ tragic situations and world view, and then analyzed the courses of their overcoming them. As a result, I look forward to contributing to promote the value of Kim’s stories. Sung-Han Kim expresses and criticizes the crisis of Korea’s postwar society as a tragic reality where god is incapable in “Oboongan” and “Gaeguri.” In “Geukhan” Dastuko, who has lived a life denying her existence, feels pity for herself and recognizes her existence. She distrusts human beings and curses the world by killing Chinese who tried to rape her, and then stands against the tragic reality. In “Guihwan” Gyeong-Seok Kim dies form a bullet wound, but Hye-Ran, his wife, never submits to the tragic reality, such as hunger and contempt, and goes to see her husband with a strong will to resolve her deep sorrow. Babido, sewing factory worker, is represented as conscientious man of the period who stands against the corrupted religious circles and carries through his convictions in “Babido.” He chooses death to win true freedom. His death is the beginning of a new life. The death which main characters in Kim’s stories meet is not the end but the new start as well as an another world, that is, the way to God’s realm. It is the willingness to overcome a tragic world what Kim tries to express. All five novels deny God’s realmbut tell the tragic world view of humans who would know that there is no other world to live a new life denying God. Humans do not yield to and hesitate over the realty, and live a life against a tragic reality. This is the tragic human who live in a tragic world and everyone’s life. Sung-Han Kim puts a catastrophe to tragic reality which main characters suffer from in his stories, but he does not wish them to stay in the world. He wants them to struggle against the tragic reality. The death that the characters choose is the expression of true will against the tragic world. I hope this study to pave the way for enhancing the value of his stories by exploring the tragic world view and will to overcome the tragic reality in Kim’s short stories.

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