오상원 소설의 연구현황과 문학사적 위치에 대한 연구

Abstract

One of the "new generation writers" in the 1950s, Oh Sang-won has been evaluated to have discussed the issue of how to perceive the current reality with his sensibility as a new generation writer. Depicting the confusion after Korea took back its independence, the tragedy of Korean War, and the horrific life after the war, his novels represented the literature in the 1950s. Despite those accomplishments, however, his novels cannot help being restricted within the 1950s literature because he failed to read the changing process of the period due to lack of objective perception of reality after the war even though he presented his personal experiences as social issues. In embodying his characters, Oh Sang-won focused on the wounds the characters were bearing after war and their physical and mental patterns. He played the role as a periodic witness by revealing human nature in the middle of scars left by war in such a realistic style. But, at the same time, it should be noted that his process of healing the wounds and scars was too illogical and depended on accidental meetings too much. As a result, maximization of inhuman nature due to war became too enlarged in spite of his efforts. In the end, it can be said that Oh Sang-won failed to achieve reality as his conscious framework of overcoming the remains of war was too fixed. Despite such a shortcoming, however, he did a good job in expressing mental trauma as to how conscious and unconscious changes were manifested and transformed by what mechanism in social situations.