최인호 소설 『바보들의 행진』에 나타난 공동체의 의미

초록

This paper analyzes the concept of community in Choi In-ho’s novel The March of Fools. Choi In-ho challenges the systemic totality of the 1970’s South Korean regime by reconstructing youth culture outside the intellectual elite’s discourse of cultivation. The novel’s college youth navigate identity and societal roles through engagement with youth cultural phenomena, critiquing the communities they inhabit by confronting their status as intellectual elites. The novel transcends the homogenized unity imposed by the Yushin regime and Minjung-Nationalism, envisioning a community where individuals coexist as “separate yet together” through transient encounters and incomplete relationships. By embracing youth culture and non-action, the characters seek a community that acknowledges individual differences while fostering coexistence—a vision sustained by the fluid temporality of “waiting”, resisting fixed forms in favor of an open-ended process. Choi In-ho’s narrative interrogates, “How can community be reimagined?”. Rejecting marginalization, the protagonist’s inner consciousness proposes a balance between private autonomy and collective solidarity. This reinterpretation of the “other” expands Choi In-ho studies beyond individualistic frameworks, highlighting the layered and diverse representations of community in 1970’s literature.

키워드