증인의 조건과 행동과 연대의 가능성 - 김붕구 증인문학론과 앙드레 말로의 관계를 중심으로

Abstract

김붕구는 한국 전후문학의 프랑스 문학 수용과 전쟁문학론, 1960년대 순수참여논쟁 등에서 중요한 역할을 한 것에 비해 그의 비평과 문학론에 대한 본격적인 연구는 아직 이뤄지지 않았다. 김붕구에 대한 기존 논의는 주로 1950년대 지성계의 지형도와 1960년대 순수 참여 논쟁과 관련하여 이루어졌다. 전자는 근대화와 계몽 담론 그리고 반공이데올로기 등으로 실존주의의 사회 비판적 성격 등이 굴절되었음을 보여주는 중요한 인물로, 후자는 순수-참여 논쟁의 시발점을 마련한 인물로 그를 자리매김한다. 하지만 이 두 경향 모두 1950․60년대 문학의 흐름 속에서 김붕구를 살필 뿐이며, 그의 비평 전반에 대한 연구나 그의 문학론과 당대 문학 텍스트와의 관련성 등에 관한 연구는 활발히 이루어지지 않았다.

The literature of the witness suggested by Kim BoongKu is a renaming of existentialist literature that focuses on Andre Malraux and Albert Camus. Kim argued that post-war Korean literature could be the literature of the witness which was regarded as World Literature at that time. An event such as war could not be explained by reason and logic. A witness is a person who experienced this tragic event. Nevertheless, the witness does not merely indulge in nihilism but testifies against violence and absurdity and acts based on humanism. Therefore, Kim thought that Korean writers who had experienced the Korean War were qualified to be witnesses and that they should be a witnesses. Kim regarded Malrauxs novels such as Les Conquerants and La Condition humaine as the classic exercise of the literature of the witness and picked the Chinese terrorist Tchen of La Condition humaine as a typical witness. Kim, however, absorbed Malrauxs prejudice that westerners can act and Asians cannot. Even the act of the Chinese terrorist is based on such dichotomy and the order of rank between empire and colony. Moreover, the Chinese terrorist could not show any solidarity with other western comrades and the Chinese people. As stated above, although the Chinese terrorist experienced the tragic event, he did not satisfy the other conditions of a witness: act and solidarity. Kim picked the Chinese terrorist who is contradictory to the literature of the witness instead of picking communistic revolutionists who acted based on conviction and solidarity. He could not make a communistic revolutionist a model of witness because of the Korean War experience and anti-communism prevalent at that time. The war experience had given the post-war Korean literature a chance to become world literature such as existentialist literature, but at the same time, anti-communism and absolutizing the war experience had stifled the unconstrained and diverse envisioning for a blueprint of Korean literature.