팬데믹 전후 한국소설에 나타난 재난과 취약성

초록

This study examined Korean novels that described how the coronavirus and the pandemic changed Korean people's lives. For this purpose, this paper reviewed Korean novels published since the 2010s, focusing on the meaning of imagination and representation related to the pandemic, and what it ultimately aims to reveal. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has become an endemic, summarizing the era of coronavirus, which dominated our lives for several years, is essential. Korean novels before the pandemic delved into the incomprehensible elements of a society prone to disasters and shed light on the need for solidarity that can be found on the hidden side of that society. Pyeon Hye-young's Ashes and Red and Choi Jin-young's To Where the Sun Sets have significance in that sense. Post-pandemic Korean novels confront the individual rights and responsibilities that have been delegated in various ways, and delicately examine the complex aspects of Korean people's lives. The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus may be passing, but another pandemic can come at any time. Without through research on the disaster situation itself, the same problems may repeat themselves in the future. According to Jo Soo-kyung's So Blue, the problem was that people who could not stop working even during the pandemic were treated as a mere component of the distribution center. Kim Yu-dam's Special Disaster Zone criticizes that the tacit satisfaction and overt expectation that the safety of a group can be maintained through some individual members' sacrifice has been prevalent throughout the pandemic era. On the contrary, Choi Eun-mi's Face-to-Face imagines the warmth of faint contact against all odds. Bae Myung-hoon's With the Aspiration of Chakatapa emphasizes that turning away and dodging cannot be the solution to the post-pandemic era. This study focused on the vulnerable sides of Korean society before and after the pandemic and reflected on the need for awareness of socially disadvantaged class. The post-pandemic narratives examined in this paper showed that the society should progress toward the values of flexibility and connectivity.

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