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The Narrative of ‘Love’ and the Literature of Park Kyung-ri

김은경 1

1홍익대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In this essay, I discuss the fact that ‘love between a man and woman’is of great importance in the novels of Park Kyung-ri. The fact that the narrative of ‘love’ includes extra-marital affairs and marriage relationships shows the viewpoint of the author which is based in reality. The various relations of love and marriage (family), poses problems on love itself, the family system, and marriage. I discover four kinds of extra-marital affairs in the novels of Park Kyung-ri which illustrate the intricate relationships between men and women: 1) extra-marital affairs derived from marriage disorders, 2) extra marital affairs between close relatives (elder brother’s wife and brotherin-law), 3) extra-marital affairs based on mutual feelings of love between the subjects of adultery, and 4) extra-marital affairs that pursue benefit and lust. Type 1) shows that ‘the exclusiveness of romantic love’, meaning that only love can lead to marriage, can not be true within the boundaries of the institution. In type 2), the elder brothers’ wives lead the adultery with their brothers-in-law. The elder brothers’ wives who are widows or do not love their husbands (i.e. do not receive their husband’s love)recover the damaged relationship of ‘love’ and ‘marriage (family)’ in the family system. Types 1) and 2) result from the undifferentiated relationship between ‘love’ and ‘marriage (family)’. Types 3) and 4) show how loveless marriages bring about adultery. In type 3), the husbands who married as a means of social success fall in love with the adultery subject. In type 4), the wives form the adultery relationship as a means of enjoying material, emotional and sexual pleasure, and exercising power. Through these narratives of adultery, the author shows the limitations of ‘romantic love’ and criticizes loveless marriage. And she also shows the position of the female character that remains within the family system. These issues are discussed in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, I discuss the issue of ‘selective marriage’. The four types of extra-marital affairs do not derive from an intersection between love and the system of family. With selective marriage comes a true harmonization of love and the system of family, by differentiating the two values of ‘love’ and ‘marriage (family)’. The aspects facilitating ‘selective marriage’ are as follows: 1) the female character has the position of a social being that does not stay within the system, 2) the characters accept the plural loves that are growing loves (or possibly growing loves), which I call the ‘love of companion’, and 3) characters who experience the unnatural death of family put ‘marriage (family)’ above ‘love’. Through these discussions, I can reveal that ‘the narratives of love’represent the problem of ‘love’ and ‘marriage (family)’ in keeping with the realistic view. Park focuses on the continuation of the system of family through the narrative on extra-marital affairs. The novels of Park do not contain an overthrowing of the nature of the affairs or a beautification of love. They contain, rather, her insights on the limitations of female characters in the family system. This essay suggests that ‘selective marriage’ is a feministic alternative to this.

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