‘죽음의 집’의 기억－염상섭의 <표본실의 청개구리> 다시 읽기 (The Memory of a Death House-re-reading Yeom Sang-seop’s ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국문학연구학회
· 수록지 정보 : 현대문학의 연구 / 69호 / 243 ~ 293페이지
· 저자명 : 한수영

초록

이 논문은 염상섭의 초기 대표작의 하나인 <표본실의 청개구리>를 기존의 해석과는 조금 다른 맥락에서 다시 읽기 위해 쓴다. <표본실의 청개구리>가 ‘3·1운동’의 후일담에 해당하는 소설이라는 것은 널리 알려진 사실이다. 그래서, ‘나’의 신경증이나 ‘김창억’의 광기도 ‘3·1운동’의 실패와 좌절로 인한, ‘시대의 우울’이나 ‘정치적 광기’로 해석해 온 것이 일반적인 해석의 관행이다.
이 논문을 통해 내가 읽어내고자 하는 것은, <표본실의 청개구리>가 ‘고문당한 자/고문에 스러진 자’에 대한, 좀 더 직접적인 응시와 기록으로서의 특징이다. 즉, ‘표본실의 청구개구리’는 그 ‘고문당한 자/고문에 스러진 자’의 후일담이다. 그것이 이 소설을 ‘액자형식’으로 만든 가장 근본적인 이유이기도 하다. 동시에 이 소설은, ‘고문당한 자/고문에 스러진 자’의 가족에 대한 이야기이기도 하다. 염상섭은 ‘고문당한 자’에 못지않게, 그들의 가족 또한 얼마나 고통을 받고 있는가에 대해서 세심하게 배려하고 있다. 감옥이나 ‘고문’에 염상섭이 얼마나 민감했었던가 하는 것은 그의 다른 대표작들인 ‘만세전’이나 ‘삼대’를 통해서도 확인된다. <표본실의 청개구리>를 이러한 맥락으로 재해석하는 것은, ‘3·1운동’의 기억과 재현에 관한 염상섭의 작가적 역량과 면모를 재인식하게 만드는 동시에, 그의 리얼리즘이 지닌 특질에 대해서도 우리를 새롭게 환기시켜 준다.
‘3.1운동 후일담’으로서 <표본실의 청개구리>를 통해 우리가 확인할 수 있는 것은, ‘고문’의 가혹함이나 운동의 폭력적 진압에서 나타난 일제의 잔악함의 고발뿐 아니라, 그 후에 지속되는 ‘일상으로서의 고통’에 주목하는 작가의 통찰력이다. 그리고, 이것이 염상섭의 ‘리얼리즘’의 특질이다. 염상섭은 언제나 ‘폭력’이 ‘일상의 질서’ 안에서 어떻게 작동하는가를 보여주고자 애썼다. 그 폭력과 ‘폭력의 경험’은, 일상을 파괴하는 동시에 ‘파괴된 일상’에 의해 다시 ‘일상’을 구축해 나가는, 이중의 ‘고통’을 만들어낸다. 해석자들에 의해 종종 ‘통속성’이나 ‘자연주의적 퇴행’으로 오인되는 이 특징의 정확한 이해야말로 염상섭 소설을 제대로 해석하는 한 관건이 될 것이다. 그 소설쓰기의 긴 여정의 초입에 <표본실의 청개구리>가 자리 잡고 있다.

영어초록

This paper is to reread ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’, one of Yeom Sang-seop’s early representative works in a slightly different context. The ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ have been very richly interpreted and studied. What I want to pay more attention to in this paper is the correlation between the ‘March 1st Independence Movement’ and the neurosis and schizophrenia of the two characters in the fiction, ‘I(X)’ and ‘Kim Chang-ok’. It is well-known that the ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ is a fiction that is a back story of the ‘March 1st Independence Movement’.
Therefore, it is common practice to interpret of the neuropathy of the narrator-‘I’ or the madness of ‘Kim Chang-ok’ as ‘depression of colonial period’ or ‘political madness’ due to the failure and frustration of the ‘March 1st Indendence Movement’. To go further than this is the reading which universalizes this neurosis and madness to the mental qualities of the modern man. This interpretation is reasonable, but it has some limitations of excessive abstraction and uncommon ‘generalization’ when reading in the context of the fiction’s composition and narrative strategy, and in the important context of the ‘timeness’ surrounding the fiction.
What this fiction attempts to describe is the direct and physical pain that the ‘March 1st Independence Movement’ has brought. The pain that ‘I’ and ‘Kim Chang-ok’ feel is not just the ideological depression or madness brought about by the failure or frustration of the ‘March 1st Independence Movement’, but rather by more specific and physical causes. What I want to read through this paper is that the ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ is a stare and record of the “tortured person / destroyed person by torture.” The premise of this article is that schizophrenia of ‘Kim Chang-ok’ should be read as ‘tortured person’. The ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ is a story of the ‘tortured person / destroyed person by torture’.
That’s the most fundamental reason for making this fiction a “frame form.” Torture was the most direct and physical shock and source of fear that Korean people experienced during the ‘March 1st Independence Movement’. Perhaps this shock and fear is more intense and direct than the abstract value or ideology of independence or freedom. Many records of the March 1st Movement testify to this terrible violence experience. At the same time, this fiction is also a story about the family of the ‘tortured person / destroyed person by torture’. The existence of ‘Kim Chang-ok’s family described in this fiction has not caught the attention of the critics. However, Yeom Sang-seop paid great attention about how much their families suffer as well as the ‘tortured person’.
The reason why we should read this fiction like this is also confirmed through Yeom Sang-seop’s other novels. At that time, writer couldn’t describe directly about the torture on the surface of the text because of the “censorship” of Japanese colonial. How sensitive Yeom Sang-seop was to prison or torture is also confirmed through his other major works, “Three Generations” and “Before the Hurrahs” The re-interpretation of the ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ in this context reminds us of the writer’s capabilities and aspects of the memory and representation of the 3.1 Movement, as well as making us newly realize on the qualities of his realism.
What we can confirm through this fiction is the writer’s insight not only in the harshness of ‘torture’ or in the violent suppression of the 3.1 movement, but also in the ‘everyday suffering’ that continues. And this is the trait of Yeom Sang-seop’s ‘realism’. The object of overthrow, the enemy, and the origin of fear and violence are also important, but Yeom Sang-seop has always sought to show how violence works in the order of everyday life. The violence and the “experience of violence” build up the dual “pain” that destroys our daily life and makes us to reestablish “everyday” by “destroyed daily life.” The correct understanding of this feature, often misunderstood by interpreters as popularity’ or ‘naturalistic regression’, will be a key to correctly interpreting his novels. At the beginning of his long journey of writing novels, the ‘The Tree Frog in the Specimen Room’ is located.

참고자료

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