청소년소설에 나타난 기후 위기 시대와 재난의 삶: 홍수 속 ‘연대’의 의미

초록

This paper examined youth novels from the 2020s that describe life under climate crisis and disaster risk. In recent youth novels, imaginations about flood situations appeared frequently. These works imagine life in Seoul completely submerged in water as the most representative form of the climate crisis, and show the active responses of youth subjects in extreme situations. This theme is timely, as it calls for a level-headed awareness and reflection on the climate crisis—one of the most pressing issues of our time. Young adult novels that deal with the issue of climate crisis materialize young people's serious awareness of problems and confident response methods. In particular, they show a keen sense of the issue of solidarity among young people, which is revealed in a special form in extreme situations such as disasters. This paper analyzed the meaning and aspects of solidarity in flood situation described in full-length young adult novels published since the 2020s, which include Danyo's Dive, Seol Jaein's Flood Warning, and Jang Eunjin's Dear My Buddy. All of these works commonly reflect on the concerns and choices of young people in a world submerged in flood water. In this process, the awareness of solidarity has an important meaning. Dive talks about the solidarity among adolescents, which was newly formed in relation to the existence of `Sooho', a machine-human girl who had been submerged in water for decades. Flood Warning depicts the socially disadvantaged who have been sacrificed for the convenience of those who think that disasters can be avoided by using huge capital. In Dear My Buddy, solidarity could be formed at last in a world submerged in water, where people protect each other with a strong sense of responsibility. In the midst of a climate crisis, the youngsters in these works are depicted as people who reveal the possibility of paying greater attention to the issues of the youth generation's lives and expressing their opinions, rather than being controlled and oppressed.

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