한국 현대 여성시에 나타난 자연 표상의 양상과 의미－‘물’의 표상을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to define the character of modern Korean women poets’ consciousness and aesthetic sense through the representations of nature in their poems. In this study, the representation of ‘Water’ was especially focused on one of the important representations of nature. In women’s poems, the representation of ‘Water’ is expressed itself by various sensitive description. Women poets express various senses like touch, hearing, etc., which are different from the modern emphasis on the sense of sight. This change of central focus develops a new area of esthetics, which is free from the stereotypes that assert the superiority of mind over body, sight over other senses. In women’s poems, the representation of ‘Water’ carries the thoughts and feelings about ‘the other’. The women poets develop a bond of understanding by projecting their interests and sympathy toward the others, instead of sticking to sight as a subject. In this way, so women’s poems reveal the rich imagination that is behind the simple description of the object. The representation of ‘Water’ in women’s poems does not simply mean fluent vitality, but it shows the dynamic relation of life and death. Women poets emphasize the circular relationship between life and death, and reveal the difficulty of maintaining life and overcoming difficulties that arise. In women’s poems, motherhood is related to the movement for recovering life’s original nature. The representations of nature that were revealed by the experience of women’s lives show a variety of sensations, a delicate cognition about the others, energetic thought about life and death, which are seldom seen in men’s poems. Women’s flexibility is related to the freedom from sight as a subject and their central position is manifested in a new aesthetic and ecological sense. The representations of nature in women’s poems involve the possibility of equal solidarity between people and nature, so they have important meaning ecologically.