돈오 김의 “연계 아시아 소설”: 『내 이름은 티안』, 『암호』, 『태극』

Abstract

One of the first Australian writers of Asian birth, Donʼo Kim published four novels: My Name Is Tian, Password, The Chinaman, and The Grand Circle. Importantly enough, the Korean Australian novelist provided us with a critical frame to read My Name Is Tian, Password, and The Grand Circle when he included them under the rubric of an ʻʻAsian novel cycle.ʼʼ Kim coined the new generic term ʻʻAsian novel cycleʼʼ by combining the ʻʻAsian novelʼʼ and the ʻʻshort story cycleʼʼ: The ʻʻAsian novelʼʼ is a uniquely Australian genre referring to an Australian narrative about an Asian country by an Australian visitor or sojourner in the region; and the ʻʻshort story cycleʼʼ refers to a collection of independent and interdependent short stories. Kimʼs coinage of the ʻʻAsian novel cycleʼʼ is a most apt one, since his three novels are not only ʻʻAsian novelsʼʼ set in Vietnam, Tartaria, and South Korea respectively but also a ʻʻcycleʼʼ of novels closely connected by the common location and theme: ʻʻregions of Asia in transitionʼʼ and ʻʻa struggle between the individual conscience and the collective lunacies of history.ʼʼ More important, the Korean Australian writerʼs ʻʻAsian novel cycleʼʼ is a devastating critique of and clear departure from a typical ʻʻAsian novelʼʼ published in Australia, for the narratives reflect Kimʼs criticism of Euro-American interventions into Asian countries, written not from the quintessentially Anglo-Celtic Australian perspective but from Asian ones such as Vietnamese, Chinese/Tartarian, and Korean.