A Study of Going out and Returning Home Motif in
한국 현대문학사에서 이상은 초현실주의적 작품 경향을 보이는 난해한 작가이다. 그의 대표작 <날 개>의 ‘나’는 ‘아내’에게 생계를 의존하면서도 아내의 직업과 화폐에 기반한 자본주의 경제체제에 대 해 모른 채 살아간다. 아내의 내객이 아내에게 돈을 주고 가는 행위를 궁금해하던 ‘나’는 아내의 외 출을 틈타 경성의 밤거리를 돌아다닌다. 돈을 하나도 쓰지 않고 아내에게 주면서 손님들이 아내에게 돈을 주고 가는 쾌감을 깨닫기도 한다.
이 글에서는 다섯 차례에 걸친 ‘나’의 외출과 귀가가 지니는 의미를 밝히고자 하였다. ‘나’는 외출을 거듭할수록 자본주의가 진행된 도시의 문명과 화폐 경제 체제에 대해 이해할 뿐 아니라 아내의 직업 이 무엇인지 알아가게 된다. ‘나’는 경제활동을 하지 않고 아내 방의 윗방에 기거하지만 이내 자본주 의 체제의 성의 상품화 문제를 인식한다는 점에서 전근대의 지식인이라 할 수 있다. <날개>는 ‘나’의 외출과 귀가 모티프의 반복을 통해 식민지 체제와 함께 이식된 서구 자본주의 경제체제를 깨닫지만 적응하지 못하고 좌절하는 지식인의 모습을 보여준다.
In the history of Korean Modern Literature, LEE Sang is known as an obscure author. Many researchers had conducted various studies on his famous work, <Nalgae : The Wings>. In this paper, I tried to clarify the meaning of ‘I‘ going out and returning for five times.
‘I’, the speaker of <Nalgae: The Wings> lived quietly in the next room of wife relying on her for living. ‘I’ wondered about the act of some guests giving money to his wife. ‘I’ went out to the streets at night in order to solve the question. The destinations of ‘I’ were the streets, Kyungsung(Seoul) Station, and the Mitsukoshi department store. These places symbolize the process of modernization as Korea becomes a Japanese colony. ‘I’ was not aware of the capitalistic economic system, which is based on money. By the way, ‘I’ repeated going out and coming home and finally understood the principle of capitalism and the process of modernization in Korea. ‘I’ recognized the problem about commercialization of sex in the capitalistic system through five times of going out.
‘I’ gave his wife the money he did not spend when he went out, then he slept in his wife’s room. ‘I’ realized the pleasure of spending money, however, as ‘I’ repeat going out and coming back, ‘I’ found out what his wife’s job actually was. But the more ‘I’, her husband, knew about her job, the more she became angry with him. ‘I’ can be called as a pre-modern intellectual who could not adapt with capitalism, in that he recognized the problem of sexual objectification in capitalist system. ‘I’ came down from the rooftop of the department store and went into the gray streets and hoped that the lost wings would come out. However, it is predicted that ‘I’ would be frustrated by the poor reality of workers under capitalism.