재난 서사와 사랑 담론 —2010년대 소설을 중심으로—

초록

This article examines the trends and significance of romantic discourse that appears in disaster narratives in Korean novels. Discourses on disaster narratives merit attention in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. In human history, disaster has not been a rare happening, but perceptions of and responses to a disaster continue to evolve. Similarly, literary approach to disaster continues to expand its boundary, oscillating between familiarity and strangeness. And this continues to have a meaning as an important realm for literary perception. This article examines the trend of disaster narratives that appear in recent Korean novels written in the 2010s, focusing on romantic discourse in particular. To this end, three full-length novels―"Date Missing" by Chang Eunjin, "Toward Where the Sun Sets" by Choi Jinyoung, "Happy Apocalypse!" by Baek Minseok―to analyze the meaning of romantic discourse present in disaster narratives. All three stories deviate from an attempt to easily remedy an unexpected situation of disaster through presence and sacrifice of a hero. Instead they portray characters that constantly agonize over dark reality and the possibility of future, and look for ways forward. It is quite interesting as such agony closely reflects the reality of the 2010s. In all three works, a romantic discourse is eventually the key motive for a philosophical exploration over how one can be rescued from a disaster-stricken ruins of a life. An old premise that love opens one to an experience of a new world seems valid even in a peculiar circumstance provided in a disaster narrative. In the novels, people in love view the world differently from others even when faced with a disaster. In all three novels, characters that are capable of forming a world for ‘two’ people instead of for ‘one’ person pose significance as they choose to no longer stay in one’s old world.

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