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A Study of the Discourse of Han Seung-Won's Novel ‘Father’ - Focusing on the Novel 『Submerged Father』-

Kim Hea-kyung 1

1한밭대학교 서울어코드활성화사업단

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the discourse of the father in Han Seung-Won's novel Submerged Father, identifying several literary themes in the text First, the theme of a loss of identity dominates the protagonist Kim Oh-Hyeon's life, who was branded as 'the son of the Reds'. The Family’s genocide was also accepted as the catalyst that motivated Kim to rebuild the family through a marriage forced by his grandfather. This signified becoming passive - father-being - and showed that he could not revert to the state of being that characterized the name of the father . Second, Kim Oh-Hyeon was obsessed with compulsive desire due to trauma and deprivation. The down fall of the Reds family became a traumatic scar to Kim Oh-Hyeon and his grandfather. Kim Oh-Hyeon needed to raise more and smarter children to make them judges and prosecutors. His desire for judges and prosecutors was an attempt to shed the tag 'the son of the Reds' and restore the image of socially acceptable ideology in his family. Third, the author, Han Seung-Won, never neglected the failures of Kim Oh-Hyeon or the exposure of the family to conflict. Han made Kim regain the name of the father through the place of the father that Kim's wife made. Kim Oh-Hyeon recovered from a loss of identity and a fundamental deficit. This is a foreshadowing which implies a positive conclusion. This novel explores the ontological meaning and typical heaviness of the father of the times through the character, Kim Oh-Hyeon. Moreover, it is an opportunity to discover the value of pursuing understanding and harmony, rather than ideological confrontation, with one’s children. The novel has some meaningful differences from Han Seung-Won's other works, which do not describe a problem of conflict between father and son as contradictory figures.

Citation status

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