김말봉 장편소설의 남녀 이미지 연구

Abstract

Women's identity has been denied in the patriarchal society. This is the dichotomy that men is the subject and women is the object. The question: Can the identity of women who are the target of oppression and relative victim be made up or overcome otherness? has been asked from the beginning of women's movement until now. Distorted images of women can be the way men can maintain subordination of women and justify this, and fix the fact that the male thing is human truths. In this study, images of the men and women of character in Kim Mal-bong's novel were analyzed by reading femininely. Kim Mal-bong(1901~1961) is a popular novelist that published 『A Jungle』 in 『Dong-a Ilbo』 in 1935 and 『Polyantha』 in 『Chosun Ilbo』 in 1937. It isn't applied to only literary works that the male thing is considered as truth and women are prescribed by its view. Female critics have started to become aware that female reproduction by the male strengthens men's power, and they tried to reread the works with women's eyes. The female critics and readers could pay attention to rereading male texts by Mary Ellmann's 『Thinking about Women』(1968) and Kate Millett's 『Sexual Politics』 published in the late 1960s. Based on a theory of criticism on feminism, in this dissertation, an image analysis that is applied to a video analysis lately was claimed. John Berger's view that meanings and interpretation of video images are educated one-sidedly and it is criticizable can be applied to a novel image as it is. Whatever novels and video images, the monopoly of their interpretation turns them into the dominant ideology, and so the meaning or the work can be fixed and question criticism of reality. Especially, in the modern society of the development of media, images and reproduction of women are filled with contradiction and prejudice. This is because the shown target is mostly women in terms of socio-cultural factors. The women are also in a complex situation that they see themselves objectified. The images of women that we know are made by men and embodied in order to meet demands of the men. This dissertation consists of three chapters, and 6 novels are the subject of the discussion. In Chapter 2, images of women are analyzed. Section 1(A shown target: other's image) shows women's image that the women can't have a positive meaning in itself and it is prescribed that it is not men in the relationship with the men. The otherness means that awareness about me doesn't exist and it has no identity in itself. Gyeong-ae in 『Polyantha』, Chae-ok in 『The Glorious Hell』, Yu Song-nan in 『The Stars Heavenly Home』, Jeon Chang-nim in 『Life』 and so on show that their life depends on men. The plots that women can have happiness by getting the love of great men and succeed with the men's aggressive support make women weaker by stimulating their Cinderella complex. Women are believed to be good as a wife, a housewife, or a mother by living submissively, dedicatedly, and altruistically. This good prescribed by men forces women to live submissively and dedicatedly. Section 2 is about images of purity and sacrifice. Through In-ae and Ja-gyeong in 『A Jungle』, An Jeong-soon in 『Polyantha』, Baek Song-hi in 『The Glorious Hell』, Han Young-sil in 『The Blue Wing』, Jeon Chang-nim in 『Life』 and so on, contradictions of patriarchal society that taboos women's lust and forces their purity were analyzed. The society forces marriage as the most desirable form of sex and doesn't allow otherwise. This norm is applied thoroughly to women of patriarchal society especially. Even women get to feel guilty about losing purity, because they see themselves with men's view. Section 3 is about the dichotomy of good and evil and the image of femme fatale. Generally, obviously sexual female characters meet a misfortune or die in the end, and are drawn wickedly such as Yosie and Okkuma in 『A Jungle』, Ok-ran in 『Polyantha』, Miss Hyeon in 『The Blue Wing』, and Yu Wha-ju in 『Life』. In Chapter 3, absolute male images as the subject were discussed. Section 1 is about seeing eyes: the subject's image that Jo Man-ho in 『Polyantha』 and Kim Sang-gook in 『The Blue Wing』 show. Besides contradictions of social and economic power given to men one-sidedly, the problems about absolute patriarchy and feudal power of patriarchy were brought. Section 2 shows men that have the image of Julien Sorel who uses a woman for status upgrading in 『The Red and the Black』 such as O Sang-man in 『A Jungle』, Hwang Young-bin in 『Polyantha』, and Kwon Sang-o in 『The Blue Wing』. They use women's love and marriage for social and economic status upgrading. In other words, they choose money, status and fame more than love. Section 3 is about ethical integrity and ideal male images such as Yu Dong-seop in 『A Jungle』 and Kwon Sang-o in 『The Blue Wing』. In Chapter 4, writers' senses were considered through epic structure of works and character images of men and women. The characters adapt to the patriarchal ideology, and force women to have chastity, obedience, sacrifice and mother love. Moreover, even a field of sex is controled by the capitalist desire and the power of money. This epic structure leads Kim Mal-bong's novel to the anti-feminism tend. Through the biographical fact and Kim Mal-bong's work, resistance to reality and changing the image of women can't be found though he took part in social activities positively like a purification movement. She makes female readers become accustomed to the patriarchal ideology with the perfect men's love, and benumbs their critical sense, and draws a typical female gender ideally in order to meet the patriarchy. In spite of a female writer, she makes the characters and leads the epic with men's eyes, and see women as others and passive beings. However, the study of men's and women's image, the subject, doesn't cause to see women's sufferings and fix their identity through the theory of feminism, but poses the problem of sexual repression and power, and so intends to overcome the problem. Moreover, by criticizing the fixed and normalized distortion of women's images for a long time, reviewing women as themselves is the purpose of this study.