전태일 이후의 한국소설과 ‘기억의 정치’

초록

In a novel narrative dealing with historical events, memory is recorded in text as political unconsciousness. On November 13, 1970, Jeon Tae-il's burning himself to death was a historical event that shook the Korean society. His sacrifice led to the creation of the first democratic union, the Cheonggye Clothes Trade Union, and gave birth to the solidarity movement of workers and university students. Since the 1970s, the Korean populace movement and the democratization movement have started from Jeon Tae-il's burning himself to death. After his death, the Korean novels about Jeon Tae-il were a scene where 'the politics of memory and the unconscious of forgetting' competed with each other. In particular, since the 1980s, Korean writers have played a variation of the ritualistic narrative about "the sacrifice of Jeon Tae-il". Appearing in Korean novels are a persistent obsession with records, a reconstruction of historical events through individuals' memories, and intentional twists intended for the introspective awareness of memories. This study sought to trace the changing aspects of the memory narrative about 'the sacrifice of Jeon Tae-il' according to the times in Korean novels. Thus, a metaphoric meaning of politics was given to the narrative patterns of of writers responding to the politics of memory and unconsciousness of forgetting. Park Tae-sun's Mother (1985) as a work in the 1980s, Jeon Tae-il and Showgirl (1997), published by Kim Young-ha as a novel in the 1990s, and Lee Jae-woong's Jeon Tae-il's Bronze Statue (2013) were analyzed. Through these texts, efforts were made to define the political unconsciousness that worked to the Jeon Tae-il reproduction patterns according to to age and generation. Park Tae-sun attempted to build the politics of record and memory that resisted the era of oppression. Kim Young-ha planned a recapitulation of events from the individual's point of view by gazing at the wounds left to individuals by collective memories. Lee Jae-woong delved into the 'self-introspection of memory' through the pattern of multi-layered struggle against transforming memories. Since the 1980s, novels about Jeon Tae-il's sacrifices have been an important field where 'politics of memory' was implemented. Korean writers raised 'ethics of memory' through 'political struggle' surrounding 'Jeon Tae-il's sacrifice'. 'Ethics of memory' is a product of the determination to reconstruct the value of' individuals' memories' in response to collective memories, while resisting the dominant ideology.

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