In this paper, I propose that the figurative structure of Tongjoo Yoon′s "One Night, Counting the Stars" reflects the poet′s anguish over the colonial reality of Korea in the later stages of the Japanese occupation, especially regarding the forced adoption of Japanese names in 1939. The poet Yoon himself registered at Yonhi College with an adopted Japanese name. In the second half of the poem, the speaker alludes to this historical fact when he confesses that "On a hill lit by myriads of stars / I spelled my name / And covered it over with dirt," and that he "laments (his) shameful name." In the simile of the last stanza, the speaker continues to allude to the "buried" name: "But past winter, come spring to my star, / As green grass sprouts on a grave mound, / So will it spread with pride / On the hill where my name is buried." The longing and the yearning, expressed so simply and in child-like manner in the first half of the poem, become in the second half an urgent need for something that should have been but cannot be, and yet will be in the future-for a world that should be, now lost but to be regained. The poem contains the poet′s earnest belief that the inherited Korean names that were then so shamefully taken away will one day be recovered. It is almost impossible to find any other work written in Korean (despite the most suppressive measures against the use of the Korean language) that also alludes to the adoption of Japanese names. In this respect, "One Night, Counting the Stars" has a unique value in the history of modem Korean literature.
국제언어인문학회 [INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANISTIC STUDIES IN LANGUAGE]
설립연도
2000
분야
인문학>언어학
소개
국제언어인문학회는 '언어를 통한 인문학 연구'의 필요성에 동감하는 여러 전공분야 학자들의 뜻을 담고 있습니다. 언어에 초점을 맞추는 것은, 다양한 전공분야의 참여에서 생겨날 수 있는 '이질적 집합'의 상황을 극복하기 위한 장치입니다. 현재로서는 작은 불씨를 지핀 것에 불과합니다. 그러나 이렇게 일구어진 불꽃이 새로운 학풍의 바람결에 커다란 섬광으로 빛나게 될 날이 올 것을 우리는 확신합니다. 우리의 학회와 학술지는 인문학 불변의 가치와 시대적 사명을 인식하는 국내외의 학자들을 향해 활짝 개방되어 있습니다. 특정 전공의 범위를 넘어서서 철학, 문학, 언어학, 종교, 역사, 문화, 예술 등의 시각에서 언어의 본질을 토론할 기회가 될 것입니다.