In this article, we examine the ‘subject’in Kim Kuyoung’s poetic works in general and his ‘novella poems’in particular which mainly shape his reputation of impenetrability, though they show arguably one of the highest peaks of modern Korean poetry. The subject in Kim Kuyong, is above all the linguistic subject. It’s the subject of split and desire, and it is produced by the dominance of the Other as language. A subject appears as signifier and is alienated by signifier, though the birth of subject is completed only through entering the chain of meaning of the symbolic, i.e. language. In his works the split subject is caused by the split of signifier and signified, and it is represented as the opposition of ‘subject symbolized’and ‘subject without symbolic address’. The latter hangs around the former. In this context the subject is nothing but a series of effects of signifiers. “The Postmark”demonstrates the condition of the subject as the place, the arrangement or the effect of signifiers. In the poem we could not find any rational reasoning that “I”, the innocent, is indicted on murder charge. The only possible answer is, the signifier of murderer he got is no more than a certain ensemble of what happened to be around him that day. The subject is coagulated as a signifier, for the subject is nothing but the effect of a series of signifiers. Kim Kuyong has a special name for this sort of coagulation. It is ‘imprisonment’. In fact, imprisonment is a rather frequent word in his works.“ The Postmark” is a brilliant showcase of his unique use of the imprisonment motif. Though he never actually killed anyone, he is a murderer in so far as he is represented as murderer signifier. The subject exists as enlisted in the symbolic system of the Other. Interesting is the subject in another novella poem “Dreamy Ideal” because it shows a denial of the disappearance of subject in the chain of meaning of the Other, in opposition to “the Postmark”. The pursuits of his desire and the phantastic union with the cause of desire - an orange - keep him, in this case, from disappearing in the chain. It seems it says the Other’s domination over the subject could not be perfect. In other words, the subject’s immersion in the symbolic system is not complete because there is always something lost when he has become a linguistic being. Desiring ‘something lost’, the subject could separate himself from the Other. The pursuit of an orange and the phantasy that he would succeed in imaginary union with that let him separate from the Other. “Dreamy Ideal”clearly points out that the separation of the subject from the Other is made possible by phantasy - and traversing the phantasy. In this poem exist uncannily Lacanian shifts from pursuit to jouissance, from desire to pleasure. The subject of the jouissance is eventually freed from desire and perversion, i.e. the power of the symbolic. The motif of the subject dominated by the Other, forms the core of Kim Kuyong’s works. The subject of desire is split, alienated, and imprisoned. On the other hand Kim Kuyong knew the possibility that the subject would traverse the phantasy. There is no trace of similar subject in the modern poetical lineage in Korea. In spite of the severe literary and intellectual isolation, Kim Kuyong’s works anticipate the subject of split and desire, only elucidated by the recent development of western philosophy and psychoanalysis. It seems he, a dozen years earlier, simply invented his own Lacanian philosophy of subject. This article is a call to an attention to the untouched mysteries of his works ? modern, resourceful and ever impenetrable.
한국문예창작학회(The Society of Korean Literary Creative Writing)는 한국
문학의 새 지평을 열기 위해 문예창작 이론과 문예교육 이론을 연구 계발하여 문
예창작의 새로운 방향을 제시하고자 조직한 학술단체입니다.
전국 대학과 대학원 문예창작 관련학과의 전·현직 전임교수·겸임(초빙)교수· 강
사·대학원 재학 이상자 및 문예창작인들이 회원으로 활동하고 있습니다. 학회의
목적에 적극적으로 동의하는 문학 관련 단체나 문학창작 동호인도 준회원으로 참
여하고 있습니다.
연 2회 학회지를 발간해 학문적 기반을 닦고 있으며, 정기적으로 학술 세미나
와 해외 문학 심포지엄 등 학술 발표회를 개최하여 학문적 교류와 토론의 장을
넓히고 있습니다.
한편으로, 문예창작 캠프·문학기행 등의 창작교육 활동과 창작 학습 행사를 수
시로 진행하면서, 창작·창작이론·창작교육에 관한 활동의 범위를 넓히고 있습니다.
별도로, 문예창작 교육을 받은 문예창작학도들의 진로 개발을 위해 '문예교육지도
교사 자격 시험'도 운영하고 있습니다.
The Society of Korean Literary Creative Writing is a pure academic
association for the literary cretive writing, and was organized on November
11, 2001 for the purpose of presenting the new direction of literary creative
writing by studying all the methods to activate and develop the theories of
literary creative writing and its education.
Our society is composed of professors or ex-professors, some invited
professor, lecturers, graduate students of the dept. of literary creative writing
as regular members, and the persons interested in our program as associative
members.
Our society holds an annual academic meeting-- literary symposium,
literary creative writing seminar-- and publishes the journal of our society
and our members' anthology of literary works.
Added to these, our society has already started a new project to open the
way for our literary juniors by providing them with a certificate as a leader
and holding a forum for literary creative writing.
간행물
간행물명
한국문예창작 [The Journal of Korean Literary Creative Writng]