권정생 동화에 나타난 생태의식 연구

Abstract

A Study of Ecological Thought on Gwon Jeong-saeng's Children's Story

Choi Ji-a

Department of Korean Language and Literature Graduate School Pukyong National University

Abstract

This thesis investigated thirteen children's stories among Gwon Jeong-saeng's works, e.g. short stories, ｢Heron families' sad story｣, ｢Snow road｣, ｢Kkachigol squirrel's house｣,「Our May｣,｢Geumbok's Plum Tree｣,｢Yong-won's father and Soon-nan's father｣, 『The Lunar World which Tolbae Visited』,「Jjang-gu's Pepper Field Fuss｣, ｢The Birds could fly｣, and long stories, e.g. 『Babdegui Jookdegui』, 『Rangrangbyeol Taetaerong』, 『Elder sister Mongshil』, 『Jeomdeuk's house』, to analyze ecological consciousness in his stories, and as the result, Gwon Jeong-saeng's ecological consciousness more closely encounters the ecological consciousness which in-depth ecological theory adheres to, though it displays the following characteristics which social ecological theory and Ecofeminism adhere to. Gwon Jeong Saeng showed the ecological consciousness which resisted inequality and the contradiction of social structure which exist in human life by personifying the animals' life through ｢Our May｣, ｢Geumbok's Plum Tree｣, ｢Jjang-gu's Pepper Field Fuss｣,｢The Birds could fly｣. He realistically showed the point that the inequality, suppression and exploitation which the neglected class of people receive, who belong to the lower part of the nation or society in order of rank, are originated from the contradictory social structure. He tells that no one can be free from exploitation in the contradictory social structure of dominator and controlled class. He showed a will to solve the problem in reality that human dominates human, and destructive society suppresses individual. And he emphasizes that the life which political leaders and religious leaders personally practise is necessary. These stories reflect Gwon Jeong-saeng's concern and worry about destruction of the ecosystem and ecological crisis. Therefore, he shows Bookchin's aspect of social ecological theory in terms of disclosing the destruction of nature and the contradition of human society. Gwon Jeong Saeng emphasized self-giving maternity and companion ethics through 『Elder sisger Mongshil』 and 『Jeomdeuk's house』. He showed maternity which accepts difficult process of life and adapts it to the male-dominated social structure through the characters in the stories. He tells that self-giving maternity which the character showed, who overcame patriarchal violence is the core of human existence. He tells that such maternity is the love and affection, as well, pricelessly invaluable. Gwon Jeong Saeng reveals the consciousness of antiwar which arouses a kind of political tensions that appear in the falsity between truth and reality during the Korean War. He didn't hesitate to reveal the truth about the Korean War by making the characters face the reality, who went through the war as the sacrificial victim of the history and society. He criticized the fact that no one intended to disclose civilians' damage during the Korean War. This criticism reflects the ecological crisis based on rank through posing a question about the intervention with rights and interests which powerful nations set up targeting weak nations. And he expressed this ecological consciousness and companion maternity to which ecofeminism adheres, through the process of overcoming the difficult reality by showing the neglected class of people who consider and take care of each other when the family community was destructed by the War. Like this, Gwon Jeong-saeng's ecological consciousness is closely connected to the ethics of care, to which ecofeminism adheres. The most fundamental characteristic of ecological consciousness displayed in Gwon Jeong-saeng's childre's story stories premises the awareness of life which respects every life. He criticized that how much our world view and consciousness are human centered, and practised 'mental ecology' with 'the emotion of pity' and 'original mind'. Gwon Jeong-saeng intended to recover 'original mind' with the respect for life and 'the emotion of pity' to regain the nature which human dominated, destructed and lost along with the development of civilization. 'The emotion of pity' and 'original mind', like this, awakened the preciousness and the value of existence of small and weak life and aimed at life community where the nature and human live harmoniously. Gwon Jeong Saeng intended to seek the value of native culture through our nation's endemic emotion and the life and wisdom of agrarian society which lives along with the nature. His childre's story stories intended to recover the nature and humanity which are destroyed by the civilization, through the appearance of the rural community life which is poor but lives a simple life. Particularly, the humorous imagination expressed in Gwon Jeong-saeng's childre's story stories along with unique local language well expressed the emotion of traditional agrarian society. The characteristic expressed in Gwon Jeong-saeng's childre's story stories criticized the contradiction of the reality where the suppression and destruction of the nature which humans exert in the name of industrialization. And accepts the in-depth ecologists' warning that human life also can be destroyed, along with the worry about the destruction of natural environment. Like this, Gwon Jeong-saeng's ecological consciousness closely encounters Gary Snyder's ecological consciousness. Also, Gwon Jeong Saeng and Snyder's way of life and attitude bear likeness that they practised the life as natural person rather than urban life and adapted their lives to the nature.Gwon Jeong Saeng and Snyder were critical about western culture and anthropocentricism which destroy the native culture. Therefore, they accept native ideology in the process of choosing the natural person which becomes one with the nature by abandoning civilization. Accordingly, Gwon Jeong Saeng and Snyper's ecological consciousness corresponds with the ecological consciousness to which in-depth ecological theory adheres. In-depth ecological theory premises ecological consciousness which intends to express comprehensive, religious and philosophical world view of environmental problems. In-depth ecological theory suggests close relation with the nature and mutual interchange as the premise by refusing the environmental image which surrounds the human. In-depth ecological theory suggests concepts of 'self realization' of humans who exist through mutual connection with the nature and 'life centric equality' which emphasizes that all lives are equal members of the whole, which are connected with each other. In-depth ecological theory emphasizes that the space earth is a life community where all living things live by being equal members, by escaping from anthropocentricism. In-depth ecological theory reports destroyed nature and humanity due to machine civilization. It emphasizes ecological ethics of life equalitarianism and self realization by pursuing ideal community where the nature and human overcome the ecological problem and harmonize. Therefore, Kwon, jung-saeng's ecological consciousness has a close connection with in-depth ecologicla theory, social ecological theory and ecofeminism, however the ecological consciousness displayed in his life and most of his literature can be said to be close to in-depth ecological theory. Overcoming of ecological crisis is the global task, and the literature can play a pivot role to return the human to the nature, who intend to escape from it. Ecological consciousness is not to newly establish the relation with the nature. It requires us to newly change our whole way of thinking, attitude of life and existing method. Therefore, the characteristics of ecological consciousness displayed in Gwon Jeong-saeng's childre's story stories were faithful to the essence of children's literature, and embodied the concrete aspect of ecological crisis situation. Therefore, Kwon, jung-saeng's childre's story stories are considered to play an important role to report ecological crisis and dream of ecological society.

Keyword: Gwon Jeong-saeng, children's story, ecological thought, ecological consciousness, ecofeminism