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The esthetic modernity brings with it a renewed understanding of the value of the artistic practice in an age that believes the social modernity as the holistic value. The concept of the esthetic modernity is very important in describing the disparity between social life and artistic practice, and the uniqueness of the artistic principles. While it is the critical attribute of art that desires to understand its own age, it also refers to the artistic epistemology as otherness. The temporality of art amounts to anti-temporality, for the esthetic quality that art presents to the social modernity positions itself as the mirror of life. The esthetic modernity ensures the continuity in the esthetic practice, while it builds the temporal validity and artistic esthetics on the integral perspective. For Ko Un who aggressively wants to put the social issues in his poetry, the esthetic modernity is significant as a new way of reading his poetry. For it is understood that such a perspective has contributed to the correction and resolution of the problems with the existing discussions that treat his poetry in a discontinued manner, splitting it into before and after 'the period of struggle'. The arguments that Ko Un's poetic development, moving through the postwar nihilism and the anti-dictatorship struggle, turns into estheticism with the 1990s separate the role of an educative intellectual and the poet and furthermore constitutes a fiction that derives from the dichotomy of theory and practice, belles lettres and engagement. The poet's poetic practice, when he becomes aware of the life of modern life, unfurls the horizon of the esthetic modernity, while in the democratic struggle in the 1980s he already reaches the 'poetic understanding of modernity' and coming into the 1990s, he attempted the internalization of modernity as his esthetic decision. With The Star of Father Country (1984) that is adjudged to establish a turning point from the inner freedom and his life as a free-spirited modernist to his aggressive understanding of the social questions, and with his poetry of the 1990s that is dominated by repentance, remorses, and discourses of recollection and reflection, Ko Un delimits the horizon of esthetic modernity as against the disruptive process of modernization. That is why Far-off Road (1999) is considered the most explicit esthetic decision that represents Ko Unof the 1990s.

한국문학의 세계화를 위한 과정 속에 쌓은 값진 성과와 경험 가운데 가장 주목되는 것 중 하나는 세계문학으로서의 고은문학의 위상이 확보되었다는 점이다. 고은은 2000년대 초반 노벨문학상 수상 후보로 외신에서 처음 거론된 이후 매년 유력한 노벨문학상 후보로 빠지지 않고 국내외 언론에 거론되며 한국에 첫 노벨문학상 수상이라는 영예를 안겨 줄 것이라는 기대를 받고 있다. 실제로 고은의 작품은 2015년 9월 현재 18개 언어로 55건의 작품이 번역되어 있으며 번역 중이거나 출판을 준비 중인 작품이 21건에 달할 정도로 한국작가 가운데 외국어로 가장 많이 번역·출판되어 있다. 더해서 매년 세계 각지의 낭독회, 강연회, 문학축제, 레지던스 프로그램 등에 초청을 받아 왕성한 해외 활동을 지속하고 있다. 고은은 세계무대에 소개된 한국작가 가운데 가장 높은 인지도를 가진 한국을 대표하는 작가이자 한국문학 세계화의 대표적인 성과가 된 것이다. 본 연구는 한국문학 세계화를 위한 과정 속에서 세계문학으로 자리 잡은 고은문학의 위상에 대한 객관적이고 체계적인 고찰의 필요성에서 출발하였다. 이를 위해 우선 1980년대 이후 한국문학의 세계화를 위한 주요한 과정과 성과들을 살펴보고 그 속에서 고은문학이 어떻게 자리매김하고 있는가를 살폈다. 그리고 해외에 소개된 고은문학의 현황과 특징을 검토하고 나아가 해외 주요 어권의 언론과 문학계의 반응과 평가를 통해 세계문학으로서 고은문학의 자리를 가늠해 보았다. 이를 통해 세계문학으로서 고은문학의 위치를 확인하는 동시에 한국문학 세계화의 새로운 가능성을 모색할 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.

One of the most noteworthy among the valuable outcome and experience from the chain of process for the globalization of Korea Literature is that the status of Ko Un's literature is secured as the world literature. Ko Un was first mentioned by the foreign press as the nominee for The Nobel Prize for Literature in the early 2000s and has been mentioned by domestic and foreign press as a strong candidate every year ever since and expected to be the first honorable Nobel Prize for Literature winner in Korea. Ko Un's works are the most translated and published ones in foreign languages among any other Korean writers and actually as of this September in 2015, 55 pieces of his works are translated in 18 different languages and 21 pieces still in translation process or prepared to be published. Add to this he has been invited to public reading, lecture, literature festival, residence program from all over the world every year and continues. Ko Un is the most recognized writer among the Korean writer introduced to the world stage and the writer representing Korea who became the representative outcome for the globalization of Korean literature. This article started from the need of considering the status Ko Un's literature as the world literature in the process of Korean literature's globalization in an objective and systematic way. In order that, the main process and result for Korean literature's globalization after the 1980s has been researched to know the whereabouts of Ko Un's literature. And examined the current state and characteristic of Ko Un's literature introduced to foreign countries and furthermore to estimate Ko Un's place as the world literature throughout the evaluation of the media in the major language speaking countries and response of the literary world. Hereby we can confirm the position of Ko Un's literature as the world literature and expect a new possibility of Korean literature's globalization.

Politics of literature, poetic restoration of ‘Gwangju Democratization Movement’ - Focusing on Ten Thousand Lives(Vols. 27-30) by Ko Un Ten Thousand Lives is poetic records of people Ko Un has known and known of. The fact that the background of its creation is The Gwangju Democratization Movement and it ends with it is important. Using poetic imagery, this work tries to portray the beginning of the most humanistic and common sense civil society during the most unfortunate and catastrophic experience in modern Korea. When we talk about history, it is generally about official history that reflects the ruling order and ideology of those in power. Whereas, the desire to discourse history and history as narration of stories tend to defy the official history. Ten Thousand Lives functions as narration of history or history as stories. History as stories is a sort of alternative history and it can be expanded and interpreted as a restoration of hidden history. Poetic recognition of history as stories is the foundation of Ten Thousand Lives. It is necessary to note that the poems in volumes 27 through 30 of Ten Thousand Lives are about people related to Gwangju Democratization Movement. The fact that the poet intentionally transformed Gwangju Democritization Movement into poems implies that not only its beginning but also its ending should be about the Gwangju Democritization Movement. As the movement was the result of state violence, a fundamental question remains, "Could the state be the agent to resolve the state violence?" The state as the agent for the healing of wounds means it takes the dominant position in discourse. The desire for history as stories or reinterpretation of history through stories are the same as a resistance to the dominant discourse of the state. This collection of poems tell and reinterpret history and confront the official notion and dominant authority. The poet was prosecuted for violating the positive law. This fact belongs to historical context and the domain of personal truth. At the same time, it is a facet of resistant discourse hidden behind the dominant discourse. Writing about memories is the most critical action to dismantle the established order as well as a desire to replace the falsified history. This motivated him to write Ten Thousand Lives and this is the reason why the Gwangju Democratization Movement becomes the ending of Ten Thousand Lives stories of history. Memories about history and poetic reproduction of memories in Ten Thousand Lives reject the objectification of memories and contributes to the positioning of past in the context of present. It is a desire to take history as stories and an imagination that topples established history. It is a desire to dismantle the dominant, authoritative, and established discourse and establish a new type of discourse, i.e. continuous telling of unfinished history or a desire to write about memories. To consider the violence and brutality of military regime as a past heritage to remember only is to fossilize history. Story of Gwangju Massacre through poems and rediscovery of Gwangju Massacre through history as stories were two of the most important roles of Ten Thousand Lives. The poet asserts that the word "Gwangju" not only symbolizes wounds, violence, and death but also contains important community experiences. The structure of Ten Thousand Lives itself expands personal lives into general, community aspects. The poems dealing with the Gwangju Democratization Movement were the poetic reaction to and witnesses of the movement, which sprouted a shoot of most beautiful civil society in the most tragic and appalling situation. And it was the poet's intention to tell stories of history. Ten Thousand Lives starts with Gwangju and ends with Gwangju. It is a return to poetic source and a recognition of literary origin. The poet demonstrates one important fact here. The space rampant with horrible killings and deaths was in fact a time to discover and experiment the most beautiful and honorable civic values. The desire to tell history is a desire to dismantle the dominant and authoritative discourse of official history. This desire is a will to restore the alienated history and excluded lives subversively and radically. This will leads to a fundamental question about what the humanity is beyond all the modern discourses. Paradoxically, the question about what the truly humanistic life is arose in the extreme situation where humans were no longer humans. Preservation of humanity was the most basic concept to maintain self-determined life. However, Gwangju also demonstrated civic values. Poetic restoration of Gwangju Democratization Movement cast important questions about humanity and civil society. This is the desire, and political and poetic accomplishment of Ten Thousand Lives that tried to tell history.

Ko Un’s Ten Thousand Lives is a collection of poems comprised of 26 volumes in total, which was first published in 1986. In fact, Ten Thousand Lives is unprecedented in the history of Korean poetic literature with the largest volumes among the anthology of poems written under a single theme. Ten Thousand Lives was written in the process of remembering the characters that a writer met when he was detained in Special Cell #7 at an army prison charged with ‘Conspiracy of Rebellion and Violation of the Martial Law’during the military coup in 1980. What matters is the interest in Ten Thousand Lives itself. At the same time, it is important to bring a new point of view, exceeding the limitation of the previous studies. Characters in various social classes appear in Ten Thousand Lives including neighbors encountered in private space and time, those who have existed in the history and in reality and transcendent and religious beings. In fact, the characters in Ten Thousand Lives are specific and living beings, forming a single community and public ontology. Therefore, as a collection of sequential poems, which has stated the process of being the subject, Ten Thousand Lives can be understood as modern subjects that vividly describe their modern life styles. A question of whether or not Korean modernization has been successful is another question on how much Korean society has preserved the value of civil society. Therefore, the implementation of the value of civil society is still an incomplete project and needs to be carried out through continued interest and criticism. The virtue of Ko Un’s Ten Thousand Lives lies in an attempt to describe the various problems, conflicts, pain and frustrations that occurred during Korean modernization through each character. Ten Thousand Lives sees that an individual is not an isolated being but a subject that seeks for its identity in the process of continuous interrelationship with others. Therefore, Ten Thousand Lives is significant in that it has illustrated the forming process of a Korean civil society. A civil society is the place where an individual wants others to become a leading entity. In other words, it is the space in which mutual recognition and recognition struggle take place. Individual freedom means the freedom free from any disturbance from others. However, this freedom can exist with the existence of others. It is a process of the self? evolution of Korean civil society to witness a variety of social conflicts such as Korean War, the April Nineteenth Uprising and May 16 Military Coup being restored through an individual life. Considering the unique characteristics of a Korean society in which public value and ethics were emphasized and its destructive and sad history, the individual who has the true value of civil society was the character that has been continuously pursued in Korean literature. Therefore, it appears that Ko Un’s Ten Thousand Lives is a narrative picture on the common lifestyle before and after the Korean War and piece of work which is significant in the history of Korean literature with the‘ Discovery of Individual.’

본 연구는 고은의 『만인보』의 대미를 장식하고 있는 「그 석굴 소년」에 나타나는 신화적 상상력의 세계를 탐색하는 데 그 목적이 있다. 고은의 『만인보』는 한국 시문학사에서 방대한 인물 서사의 새로운 시적 지평을 확장시킨 성과를 거두 었다는 문학적 주목을 받았다. 이 연구에서는 『만인보』의 역사적 공동체의 인물 서사 담론에서 신화적 담론으로 대미를 장식한 「그 석굴 소년」의 신화적 서사 구조를 분석하였다. 「그 석굴 소년」은 서사의 시간과 공간의 움직임이 역동적이고, 신화적 이미지가 선명하게 발현되어 있기 때문이다. 「그 석굴 소년」의 신화적 상상력의 서사적 특성을 요약하면 다음과 같다. 먼저 서사 인물의 신화성이다. 작품의 주인공인 ‘소년 수레’는 『만인보』의 역사적 개개인의 삶의 이야기가 기록된 ‘돌책’을 읽고 전승하는 주체이며, 영원성의 생명을 지닌 영웅으로 존재하는 신화적 인물로 등장하고 있는 점이다. 또한 이 작품에 나타나는 시간의식은 광활하고 우주적인 과거와 미래를 주관하는 무 시간의식의 신화적 서사 구조를 지니고 있다. 그것은 과거와 미래를 자유롭게 넘어 다닐 수 있는 ‘영원한 현재’인 과거-현재-미래의 반복 순환 구조로 나타난 다. 현실적 시간이 아닌 무 시간성의 세계인 영원성의 시간의식을 담고 있다. 이 작품의 주요 공간인 ‘석굴’은 신화적 공간이 자리 잡고 있다. 또한 ‘석굴’은 ‘소년 수레’가 태어난 태초의 공간이자 원형회귀의 공간이다. 즉, 자연과 인류가 교합된 신화적 공간이라는 특징을 갖고 있다. 이 태초의 공간은 현실과 대립되는 장소가 아닌 ‘정화’와 ‘재생’의 무공간성의 신화성을 띠고 있다. 이러한 「그 석굴 소년」에 나타난 신화적 상상력의 서사 구조는 『만인보』에 등장하는 역사적 개개인의 삶을 신화적 차원으로 전환시켰다. 이는 주인공 ‘수레’ 를 통하여 신화적 시간과 공간을 매개로 하여 존재의 시원과 영생의 차원으로 승화시켜 역사적인 진실을 구현하려는 고은의 신화적 상상력 전략의 결산이라 하겠다.

<Ten Thousands Lives> written by ko-un has been received attention and studied constantly, in that it shows results of extending the new horizon of Character Description in Korean Poetry Literature. In particular, in “A Stone Cave Boy”, which marks the end of the vast scale, the movements of time and space are more dynamic than other poems and the mythical image presents distinctly. It seems like the person who told stories of the other poems interestingly was the boy through “A Stone Cave Boy” in the last. The boy ‘Soorae’ exists as a mysterious hero and the very man who has told everybody’s story. He deepens himself the mythical image by encompassing cosmic past and future. The boy who lives environmentally friendly and without ‘time’, grows learning the rhythm of nature in the space of the cave. “A Stone Cave Boy” denote ‘eternal present’ through the boy who can freely move between past and future, and past-present-future rotation system is naturally designed. The boy enters the world not of ‘absolute time’ but of ‘time-free’ and is given memories of a few million years ago and hunches of a few million years later. It tells the boy’s eternity by making the conventional view for time pointless. Through his ability, he develops as a hero delivering the structure of interdependent relationship between human and nature. The space that the world of time-free turns up is ‘the stone cave’. This place is primal space the boy was born and means a return to the original form, and can convey tremendous power only to the boy. This place features the space congregated by nature and mankind more than just space. Water, one of the basic materials of space, has been recognized by the same meaning with ‘mother’, and image of ‘sea’ in Ko-un’s works is connected to ‘life’ and ‘purification.’ Therefore, the boy is purified and gains the life force by returning to the primal place. Furthermore, it exists as a connecting link to present, not the opposing existence, and disclose the interaction between human and nature by arranging the movements of life and nature in a row. Entry into the stone cave is the space which the boy exists himself as well as his destiny. He finally finds the authentic self and eternal life by making roles of communication between space and empty. What the boy’s world of time-free or space-free is willing to reveal is the fact that the world bases on a mythical imagination of circulation and eternal recurrence. As the last part of “A Stone Cave Boy”, the life or death is meaningless in the world of the cave. The boy obtains sense of freedom by erasing the boundary between life and death. The fact that the story of ‘eternal boy, Soo-rae’ in the world of time-free and space-free in the last masterpiece <Ten Thousands Lives> is the writer’s meaning that there are countless stories in the past and the future.

이 논문은 고은의 『만인보』에 형상화된 근대적 주체 형성의 실천적 인식 과 그 시대적 인식을 분석하는 데 목적이 있다. 『만인보』는 총 작품 수 4001 편, 등장인물 5600여 명으로 신화 속 인물에서부터 고대와 중세, 근·현대 의 역사 속 인물에 이르기까지 다양한 인간군상을 서사적으로 형상화하고 있다. 특히, 우리 민족의 역사를 토대로 지배·피지배 계층의 구성원을 아우르는 인간군상의 주체화라는 점이 특징이다. 이러한 역사의식을 토대로 한 인간 사회의 다양한 문제와 대응방식이 고 은 시의 저변에 흐르는 민족·민중의식과 결부되어 근대적 주체의 형성 과정이 잘 나타나 있다. 여기서 주목할 것은 『만인보』가 역사를 기반으로 재구 성된 대서사적 지평을 개진하고 있는 점을 감안할 때, 정사(正史)와 야사(野 史)의 상호텍스트성이 미학적 실천으로 이어진다는 점이다. 이것은 시에 형 상화된 근대적 주체(실학자에서부터 기생까지) 형성의 지난한 과정과 그 시대적 인식이 독자와의 공감대를 형성하고 주제를 응집하는 원동력으로 작용했기 때문에 가능하다. 이러한 점이 『만인보』가 대서사시, 인물서술시로 접근할 수 있는 중요한 요소로 분석된다.

This paper focused on analyzing modern subject in Ten Thousand Lives of Ko-Un. Ten Thousand Lives was comprised of 4001 statements of 5600 people from ancient times to present-day, from mythical to historical, and from governing class to subject people. A distinguishing mark of Ko-Un’s poem, a national consciousness was related with a variety of problems and responses based on historical awareness. A description of formation of modern subject was an important point which Ten Thousand Lives provided a grand story and an epic poem. Ten Thousand Lives, a collection of serial poems featuring ‘a subjectivization of subject’, was consistent with a process of formation of modern subject in history. It was significant that the serial poems were not only limited to Korean modernization but also expanded to universal emotions of global citizens. Specifically, the socially weak, such as ‘a child’, ‘a woman’, and ‘a servant,’ appeared as poetic speaker in poems to seek ‘a recognition on reality’ of modern subject. ‘A practical awareness’ of modern subject reflected the essence of an era, a symbol of smaller condemned and suppressed community in a larger community, ‘a society’. A awareness of an era developed to a practical awareness. A formation of modern subject, described in Ten Thousand Lives, had differentiated and had characteristic features of ‘ours’ experiencing the Korean Empire and Japanese Colical Period. Ko-Un identified a premodern society as an important point to form modern subject.

Wandering is a journey started from groping self-identity as a poet tofinding the social and historical meanings to KoUn. His poetic worldwhich began from the war-torn ruins once was associated with Moderndesign, but later modified by Realistic creativity. In 1980s, the time ofdesire for democratization, multifarious dimensions of space had beenappeared as subjects in his poems; this is a fruit of his will to self-affirmas a poet, rather to connect personal dimension and public dimension. ‘Moving’is realization for the fluid nature of life and conscious expressionabout ‘cannot be settle in’to KoUn. Wandering is not a play or anamusement, but an absolute calling to respond his self-granted order andresponsibility to him, and this calling can be explained by his poeticdiscovery and condensation about nomadic world view composedhistorically. He has longed for a new birth as a poet through poetic materializationabout diverse regions. He has moved from ‘I write, therefore I am’to‘ Igo, therefore I am written.’It is no more than a desire of self-affirmation for a‘ poem by feet’. KoUn, whose poetic otology is materialized throughdiverse levels of space as a subject, will be recorded a poet finding verydistinctive poetic discovery.

A piece of text is a piece of mind. The mutual relationship between the writer and his text can be translated into a situation where composition and decomposition of desire and internal scars and the pain of ignition co-exist. Writing visualizes the sound of desire and, at the same time, reveals oppressed self-consciousness. Consequently, writing is revealing of desire and oppression while desire for discourse is a process of self-sensor for covert desire. A poem is an artistic act of turning internal hiding and concealment into methodological principles through refraction and distortion. Poetic truth is beauty revealed in the course of exploring the internal side of the poet who has appeared in disguise. Ko Eun's poem writing is heavily dependent on important turning points in Korean history. Simultaneously, his poems has close, internal corelation with the political situations derived from it. The Dialect of the Universe," Ko Eun's anthology of proses, has characteristics as follows. First, though he gives details how his internality, or poetic languages are formed in his proses, he tends to interpret his poem expost and endorse their existence. This suggests that he attempts to disclose his belief through writing which reveals his internal side and expresses his desire to be located at the center of politics by justifying his political senses. Second, he divides the course of his poem writing into three sections: early poems, participatory poems and intrinsic cycle after 1990s. The naming of intrinsic cycle by himself contains his desire to embrace more universal sense, including international senses, humanitarian and global meaning and human rights and life. Third, given that poem writing is a form that reveals his fate as a poet, Ko Eun will be remembered as a poet who has equalized poetic truth and political truth by corresponding political senses to systemic dimensions, which is nearly unprecedented in the history of Korea's poem literature.

이 연구는 고은 시에 나타난 ‘몸’의 인식을 탐구한 담론이다. 이제까지 고은 시에 대한 연구는 사상적, 불교적, 민족적 담론을 중심으로 다양하게 탐색되어 왔다. 이는 그의 시세계에 따른 정신 지향에 관점이 맞춰져 왔기 때문이다. 따라서 이 연구는 그의 정신세계와 세계관이 ‘몸’의 인식을 통해 어떻게 표출되었는가를 해명했다는 점에서 의의를 지니고 있다. 고은의 ‘몸 시’들을 형상화하는 육체 시어들은 그의 정신과 세계관을 드러내는 상형문자 라 할 만큼 상징성을 지니고 있다. 즉, 그의 시정신을 담고 있는 그릇이다. 『피안감성』을 비롯한 초기 시들에 나타난 ‘몸’의 시어들은 허무의식과 죽음의식으로 가득 차 있다. 이 무렵 의 시 <밤의 법열>, <深靑賦>, <이별>, <폐결핵>, <사치>, <무덤에 관한 추억> 등 초기의 ‘몸 시’들은 죽음 의식과 자아의 상실의식을 담고 있다. 이는 존재의 소멸을 통해, 그 존재의 의미를 드러내고자 하는 세계관의 표현이다. 여기서의 ‘몸’은 바로 세계와 존재의 소멸을 의미한다. 모든 존재와 사물을 죽음과 허무를 통해 존재 를 드러내고자 하는 방식이었다. 이러한 ‘몸’의 허무적 인식은 1960년대에 이르러 육체의 생명성을 모색하고자 하는 의식의 전환을 이루었다. <눈길>, <병후>, <晋州南江>, <유혹>, <산중신록> 등의 몸의 시어들은 세계에 대한 깊이 있는 성찰을 ‘몸’ 을 통해 세계를 구조화하려 한 것이다. 이는 초기 시들의 ‘누이 콤플렉스’와 허무주의에 대한 새로운 몸의 생명 성과 육체성을 회복하고자 하는 각성이었다. ‘몸’의 허무와 생명성은 민주화 열망의 시대성과 직면하면서 인식의 격동을 이루게 된다. 1970년대에 이르러 그의 ‘몸 시’들은 ‘몸’은 세계 안에 갇혀 있는 것이 아니라, 세계와 하나되기 위해 세계로부터 다시 나와 세계와 상호 관계하는 몸이라는 인식에 도달하였다. <放禪>, <화살>, <다시 오늘>, <죽은 깃발>, <별>, <길> 등의 작품들이 이러한 인식의 정점을 이루었다. 이는 80년대 민주화의 열망의 시대까지를 관통하는 정신의 ‘탄알’ 이었으며, ‘화살’이었다. 이 ‘탄알’과 ‘화살’로서의 그의 육체적 담론들은 민주화 시대 속에서의 ‘몸의 정치성’을 구현하려는 태도로 확대되었다.

This article features a discourse of the perception of ‘body’ in Go-un’s poetry. While most research on Ko-un’s poetry have focused on an ideological, Buddhist and national discourse which his spirit-oriented poetry has shown, this research has a worthwhileviewpoint how his world of spirit and an outlook of the world have expressed through the perception of ‘body’. The poetic words in Go-un’s ‘poems of body’ are symbolic enough to call as a hieroglyph that shows his spirits and an outlook of the world. The poetic words of ‘body’ in his early poems such as in [The Sense of Entrance into Nirvana] are full of emptiness and the awareness of mortality. The early ‘poems of body’, <religous exultation>, <farewell>, <tuberculosis>, <luxury>, and <memory of a grave>, incorporate the awareness of mortality and loss of the ego. It attempts to reveal the meaning of the existence through the extinction of it. Here, ‘body’ represents the extinction of the world and the existence. Referring an emptiness and the death is directly engaged to the revealing the existence. The nihilistic awareness of ‘body’ effects on the conversion of consciousness to grope the aliveness of a body in 1960s. The words of body in poems, <Snow Covered Road>, <Convalescence>, <Temptation>, and <Mountains Covered With Fresh Verdure>, are attained to an awareness of unity which structures the world through ‘body’. The process of recovering the aliveness and freshness of body helps the defeat of the inferiority complex about his sister and emptiness which are shown in his early poems. The aliveness and emptiness of ‘body’ experiences the turning point in the era of democratization. In 1970s, his ‘poems of body’ reaches the awareness of the ‘body’ interconnected with the world which are shown in <Bulletproof>, <A Song of a Sickroom>, <An Arrow>, <Today, Again>, <Dead Flag>, <Stars>, and <A Road>. This has been a ‘bullet’ and an ‘arrow’ of spirit which penetrates an era of democratization in 1980s. His physical discourse as a ‘bullet’ and an ‘arrow’ has beenexpanded to an area of body which called as a spiritual flag.

The Korean poet and writer Ko Un(1933-) will soon be eighty, he has published more than 150 volumes of many different kinds, yet there are virtually no comprehensive discussions of his work; few or no attempts have been made to provide a critical commentary on his poetic work as a whole. The present study is divided into two main sections. The first traces chronologically the publication history of Ko Un’s poetry, in the context of his life and contemporary Korean history. The second explores a number of aspects of his work, illustrating each by quoting one or two poems in translation. The first half of the critical appreciation discusses certain overall features of his work: Forms and Subjects, Revisions, Critical and Public Reception, Unity and Fragmentation. The second half discusses possible descriptive adjectives which might be applied to the poet and his work: Political, Playful, Puzzling, Intelligent, Radically Disconcerting. The conclusion recognizes possible objections and negative opinions regarding Ko Un’s work but finally refuses to make any evaluative judgements on such a huge body of writing, instead offering the present study as a ground-breaking, overall exposition of a body of work that deserves to be read and discussed in far greater detail in future.

Politically, both Walt Whitman and Ko Un share a similar vision of poetry and the message of democracy because both poets struggle through historical turmoil, try to sing for the common people living in the shifting political climates, and finally forge a national epic of their people en-masse. In addition, while both Whitman and Ko Un are never considered poetically sophisticated, they truly succeed in getting out their vision of democracy by actively engaging in the dialogues and discourses of their times. Thus, this paper illuminates how each poet defines the poet’s role, puts out the democratic principle of ‘the many in one’ and ‘one in the many’ and makes himself as a national bard. Ultimately, this paper celebrates both poets as great monuments of democracy, who will be remembered as representatives of the American and the Korean Sublime.

본고에서는 고은의 초기 시세계에 나타난 상징주의의 특징과 세계관을 살펴보았다. 암시성, 음악성, 상징성 등으로 요약되는 상징주의적 주요 특징들과 더불어 불교적 세계관과의 교착점까지를 초기 작품 내에서 살펴보았다. 특히 상징주의는 초월적 국면과 개인적 국면으로 나눌 수 있는데, 고은의 경우 이 두 가지 측면을 모두 보여준다. 초월적 상징주의는 현실이나 현상 자체보다는 인간의 본질과 본원, 관념과 초월을 지향하는데, 고은 초기 시에서도 피안彼岸과 차안此岸의 이원론적 세계관을 찾아볼 수 있으며, 피안으로 상징되는 초월적 관념적 세계와 이상 세계의 지향과 추구를 발견할 수 있었다. 특히 그에게 이상과 관념, 초월의 국면은 “피안”과 “바다”, “누이”의 상징을 매개로 하여 드러난다. 이와는 달리 암시하고 상징하는 매개 대상이 도달하는 관념이나 감정이 인간적 차원으로서의 시인의 내면에 머물러 있거나, 개인적인 감정과 정서를 재현한다면 이는 개인적 상징주의라고 할 수 있다. 고은의 초기 시에서 인간적 상징주의의 국면을 보여주는 대표적 대상은 다름 아닌 누이, 형수와의 근친, 이별, 질병과 죽음 상징 등으로 일별할 수 있다. 고은의 작품에서도 사랑과 이별, 질병과 죽음으로 인한 인간의 고통과 번뇌는 중요한 상징으로 기능한다. 주지할 것은 누이의 경우 허구의 누이를 관념과 추상의 매개와 현시체로 볼 경우 초월적 상징주의에 해당하겠지만, 훼손되고 상실된 시인의 내부 세계, 인간의 감성과 심리를 표상하는 경우 인간적 상징주의의 매개로 볼 수 있다는 것이다.

This study looked at the characteristics of Ko Un’s early works and his world views. The three major characteristics of Symbolism such as suggestiveness, lyricalness, and symbolization and the merge with the Buddhist world views are found in his early works. Particularly, Symbolism can be categorized into transcendental and private aspects and Ko Un showcased both in his literary works. Transcendental Symbolism pursues the essence and origin, and ideals and transcendence rather than the reality and phenomenon itself. Ko Un’s early poems display the dual views of the world of nirvana and this world and the world of transcendental ideas and the aspiration and pursuance of the idealistic world symbolized in the form of nirvana are found in his works. Especially his ideals, ideas, and the aspect of transcendence are shown in the expressions of the “nirvana”, “ocean”, and “sister” for symbolization. On the contrary, if the ideas and emotions achieved by the expressions implied and symbolized remain in the inner world of the poet in the human aspect, it is Private Symbolism. Ko Um’s early poems showcase Private Symbolism by the illustration of the sister, incest with the sister-in-law, partings, disease, and death at the first glace. Notably, the fictitious sister used in the sense of the ideals and abstracts seen from the present day suggests Transcendental Symbolism, but also an expression of Private Symbolism by representing the damaged and lost inner world of the poet, and human emotion and psychology.

As is easily guessed, translated Korean literature has virtually little presence in the world literary market. Among many reasons to analyze this paucity of world interest in translated Korean literary works, the difficulty of English translation itself has been mostly blamed. However, given the fact that the difficulty is not applied only to Korean literature but to all non-English works, the precarious nature of the success of translated works needs to be probed in another light. Hence, I propose to examine the possibility that what domestic scholars provide as the essence of Korean literature might taste different from what foreign readers expect from reading world literatures. This means that domestic scholars need to form another approach to ‘Koreanness’ of Korean literature in order to suit the taste of non-Korean world readers. As a trial attempt, I review the research papers on modern Korean poetry and how domestic scholars have forged the nature of Korean poetry as “literature of grief.” Then using two translated texts of Ko Un’s poems, I try to show that in most cases culturally specific sentiments cannot be materialized in the educated English in the process of translation and that only a writer’s humanist gaze at and compassion for human suffering can survive the atrocity of translation and come to attain any kind of poetic achievement.

본고는 고은의 시집 『전원시편』을 ‘시간’과 ‘공간’의 관점에서 고찰하였다. 2장에서는 ‘세월’과 ‘세대’와 ‘시대’ 등으로 이해할 수 있는 ‘시간’에 집중하였다. 고은 시인은 언어의 운용과 작품의 구도를 결정하는 데 탁월한 능력을 발휘하였다. 그것을 그의 시 「어린 손자와 함께」, 「연기 한 가닥」에서 살폈다. 또한 ‘시로 쓴 사회사’로서의 시 「가로수」에 주목하였다. 고은은 여기에서 개인의 삼대가 아닌 사회의 삼대를 설정했는데, ‘일제’와 ‘이승만 독재 정권’과 ‘박정희 정권’이 그것이다. 더불어 아포리즘 또는 격언의 형식으로 전개되는 시인의 시편에서 우리는 유의미한 성찰이나 각성에 도달할 수 있다. 단순한 일상의 언어를 뛰어넘는 진정한 시어와 더할 수 없이 구체적이며 상상을 자극하는 열린 표현 그리고 ‘시간’의 한계를 돌파하여 영원에 닿으려는 노력은 고은 시의 참된 가치이다. 3장에서는 ‘고향’과 ‘이 세상’과 ‘이 땅’ 등이 대변하는 시집의 ‘공간’에 주목하였다. 시인은 시 「나들이 길」이나 「벼를 털며」에서 ‘이 세상’이라는 ‘공간’에 집중하는데, 그에게 ‘이 세상’은 지금, 여기에서 삶의 소중함을 환기하는 ‘공간’이었다. 고은의 시 「복더위」에서 주목할 대목은 ‘사람 정치’, ‘소 정치’, ‘돼지 정치’ 등 일련의 ‘정치’와 그것이 실행되는 ‘공간’인 ‘이 땅’이었다. 시인은 여기에서 ‘국가’와 ‘국민’, ‘나라’와 ‘사람’에 통용되는 ‘정치’를 ‘소’나 ‘돼지’ 같은 가축에 적용함으로써 풍자를 보여주었다. 고은의 시는 쉽게 희망을 포기하지 않는다는 점에서 매력적이다. 또한 고은의 삶과 문학에서 핵심적인 가치를 갖는 구체적인 ‘공간’으로 ‘안성’의 의미를 기억해야 하겠다. 4장에서 연구자는 ‘시간’과 ‘공간’을 아우르는 ‘시공’으로서의 ‘서울’에 주목하였다. ‘농촌’, ‘농업’, ‘농민’의 아픔을 껴안으려는 필사적 몸부림이 시집 『전원시편』에서 농촌, 농업, 농민의 문제를 파악하기 위해 그것의 대척점으로서 ‘서울’에 유의해야 했다. 고은에 따르면 ‘이 나라’는 농민과 농촌을 위한 나라가 아니다. ‘대한민국’은 도시와 그곳에 거주하는 도시인을 편애한다. 시 「풀」의 ‘갈라진 땅’이라는 표현은 시인의 투철한 문제의식을 드러낸다. 여기에서 ‘갈라진 땅’의 의미는 일차적으로 도농 분단을 가리키지만, 이를 동서 분단이나 남북 분단으로 확장하여 이해해도 가능하다. 또한 길이 보이지 않는 농민들이 ‘농촌’을 탈출하여 ‘서울’에 간다 해도 삶은 여전히 어둡다. 이 땅에서 ‘서울’은 모든 것을 빨아들이는 궁극의 블랙홀이다. 고은의 시에는 도농의 분열 없는 나라, 하나 된 대한민국을 향한 간절한 염원이 담겨있다. 이처럼 고은의 시집 『전원시편』은 우리나라 농민, 농업, 농촌이 맞닥뜨린 위기와 제 문제를 ‘시간’과 ‘공간’의 관점에서 환기하여 그 해결책을 찾으려는 적극적 시도였다. 시인은 농촌에서 삶의 고향을 보았고, 농민에게 우리 조상의 얼굴을 발견하였다. 요컨대 고은 시인은 더 이상 서울과 농촌, 대처와 시골의 분열이 지속되어서는 안 되며, 하나 된 대한민국에서 누구나 함께 행복을 추구할 수 있기를 소망했던 것이다.

본고는 바다의 이미지를 중심으로, 시인 고은의 초기 시에 나타난 생태적 자아에 대한 연구이다. 심층생태학의 핵심인 ‘생명의 평등성’과 ‘자아실현’의 인식이 고은 시의 기저에 깔려있다. 고은 시에서의 생태적 자아는 생태 중심적인 사유 속에서 자아를 실현해나간다는 의미에서 일반적 자아의 개념보다는 훨씬 그 범위가 확장되어 있다. 고은의 초기 시에서 바다의 이미지와 상징이 중요한 이유는 그 바다를 통하여 생태적 인식의 한 면을 드러냈기 때문이다. 그리고 죽음, 고통과 수없이 싸우면서 스스로 체득한 생태적 자아는 때론 부정적으로 인식되어 나타나기도 한다. 그러나 강한 생명력과 재생의 힘으로 작동하여, 시인이 살고자하는 의지의 실천을 보인다. 결국 시에 형상화된 죽음에 대한 고통과 삶의 허무는 그 자체로 끝나는 것이 아니라,‘생태적 자아’인식과 ‘자아실현’의 모습으로 형상화되어 그의 중기, 후기시로의 이행을 가능케 한다. 나아가 고은의 시가 민족, 국가, 민중, 생명 등 확장된 시 세계를 구축할 수 있있었다는 점을 충분히 추론할 수 있다. 그래서 고은의 시 창작 과정은 그 자체로 생태적 자아실현의 과정이라고 할 수 있다. 본 논문은 고은 시 세계관을 관통하는 한 요소로서, 생태적 인식을 읽어낼 수 있는 연구라는 점에 의의가 있다.

This paper is a study of the ecological ego in Ko Un's early poetry, focusing on the image of sea. The perception of 'Equality of life' and 'self-realization', which are the core of deep ecology, lies at the base of Ko Un's poetry. The ecological ego in Ko Un's poetry extends far beyond the general concept of self in the sense that it realizes self in ecological centered thought. In Ko Un's early poetry, the image and symbol of the sea are important because they reveal an aspect of ecological perception through the sea. And the ecological ego, which has been acquired by fighting with death and suffering a number of times, sometimes appears to be perceived as negative. However, it works with a strong vitality and regenerative power, and shows the poet's will to live. In the end, the suffering and the futility of life, which are shaped in poetry, are not end in itself, but are shaped by the 'ecological self' awareness and 'self realization', enabling the transition to his middle and late period poetry. Furthermore, it can be inferred that Ko Un's poetry was able to build a extended poetry world such as people, nation, life, and so on. This paper is meaningful in that it is a study can read ecological perception as a factor penetrating the world view of Ko Un's poetry.

This study explored into the poetic spirit of ‘Sea’ in Ko Un’s poetry. He has been approaching ‘the poet of sea.’ His poetry after the 2000s has been broadened and constantly evolving in its prospect. This direction of evolution connotes the cognition of new poetic exploration about the current and wave of sea confronting a fixed culture and the downward earthly life. In 1950s, the country ruined by the war and Ko’s mental illness made his cognition of sea in his early poetry. His early poems involved existential agony of the whole generation with no outlook for the life. This existential futility was not ‘the imagination of despair’ through sea but the process to formate his volition above the despair. In 1970s, his poetry faced with ‘the death of Jeon Tae-il’ was broadened into political cognition with the volition for revolution of poetry rather than extinction of poetry. This was not sudden transition, but his poetic future, already born with sea in his inner poems. In the era of Man-in bo, His poetic aim went toward the cognition of the people’s life,the host of history, as future, hope, agony and grief of the torrent. Therefore, ‘sea’ was not the grave of death but the womb for life making historical life return to a primitive horizon. His poetic spirit of sea escaped oppression of earthly life and became recognized as sea of new birth. Furthermore, it was recognized as natural foresight or fruit of insight. ‘Sea’ was the torrent of the ground for him, and his literature, which the poetic destiny left with the sea, was also a torrent in the Korean history of literature. It made the womb, conceiving a new life with pain, live dynamically. Thus, he clamors the birth of poem for dynamic sea, telling ‘still we have to be born again.’As a result, the new poetic destiny cognizing ‘His sea’ goes toward the new poetic birth, involving the sea emerging from the view of land and expanding into the horizon. The route for ‘Sea’ for him was the poetic destiny desiring freedom of the new order and his future as well.

고은과 개리 스나이더의 초기시의 특징을 꼽는다면, 그것은 각각 허무와 반문화적 저항일 것이다. 그리고 불교의 무상성이 고은의 허무와 스나이더의 반문화적 정서에 틈입하는 특징을 보인다. 그러나 두 시인은 중기시를 거치면서, 그들의 무상감은 허무도 존재하지 않는다는 깨달음을 통하여 인간과 인간 혹은 인간과 비인간 자연의 상호 의존성을 담보하는 공감심으로 진화한다. 물론 두 시인이 공감심을 발휘하는 대상은 다르다. 고은의 시어가 휴머니즘을 지향하면서 한국인과 한국의 역사에 대한 연민을 드러낸다면, 스나이더는 생태적 평등을 그의 중심 주제로 채택하면서 인간중심주의적인 언어와 문화를 비판한다. 각각 사회 개혁과 문화적 변혁을 도모하는 그들의 중심 시학은 다르지만, 두 시인은 흥미롭게도 변화의 방향과 방법론을 자연이 작동하는 방식으로부터 찾는다. 스나이더의 자연존중사상은 차치하더라도 고은은 최근에 발표한 시와 대담 혹은 수필 등에서 인본주의적 자유와 평등과 정의를 추구할 때조차도 무위자연의 도를 따르도록 요구한다. 스나이더가 말하듯이 아마도 자연과 자연계 혹은 사물의 본질적인 의미를 알 길이 없다. 그럼에도 불구하고 ‘산은 진정으로 산이고, 강은 진정으로 강이’듯이 자연은 제각기 그 은성한 생명성을 발현한다. 고은과 스나이더의 시학은 바로 그러한 생명성을 공유한다.

The buddhist sentiment of impermanence interpenetrates Ko Un’s nihilism and Gary Snyder’s counter-cultural resistance, which characterize their early poetics. As they reach the middle period of their poetic career, however, the nothingness evolves into interdependent compassion by way of their self-realization that there is no nothingness(sunyata) either. Significantly enough, one poet’s compassion differs from the other’s; Ko Un’s poetic language goes toward humanism and sympathizes with Korean people and their historical predicament whereas Snyder, advocating ecological egalitarianism, problematizes anthropocentric language and culture. Although the two poets’ key words toward cultural transformation and social reform are different, interestingly enough, they seek the ultimate direction and methodology of change from the way nature works in common. Apart from Snyder’s respect for nature, Ko Un, in his recent poems, talks and essays, demands to follow the way of non-action even when we desire to promote humanistic freedom, equality and justice. There is no way of knowing the inherent meaning of ‘nature,’ ‘natural world,’ or ‘the nature of things as Snyder says. Nevertheless, the way of nature works as surely as humans believe that the ‘mountain is indeed a mountain and the river is indeed a river.’ At least, Ko Un and Gary Snyder share the poetics of livingness.

본고에서는 1960년대에 창작된 고은의 초기 시에 나타난 기독교적인 특징들을 살펴보았다. 고은의 초기 작품들은 소멸과 죽음 지향, 유미주의, 비극성에 크게 기울어 있다. 그러나 초기 시, 그중에서 근친상간적 구도의 작품들에서 유독 두드러지는 기독교적인 이미지들에 본고는 주목한다. 먼저 제1시집에 실린 대표작 「폐결핵」과 내용상 「폐결핵」의 연관텍스트에 해당하는, 「사치」에서 기독교적인 이미지와 특징을 찾아 분석해 보았다. 금기와 위반, 원죄와 죄의식을 환기시키는 ‘누이와 나’, ‘형수와 나’의 근친 애정 구도로 설정된 텍스트들에서 두드러지는 기독교적 이미지의 차용은 그의 작품 내에서 비극성을 고조시키는 효과를 연출하는 것을 알 수 있었다. 특히 「사치」에서 현현된 누이의 죽음의 의미를 본고에서는 시적 화자의 죄의식을 단죄하고 자기용서와 애도에 이르게 하는 징벌과 카타르시스로서 죽음을 의미하는 것으로 살펴보았다. 제3시집과 장시(長詩) 「사형(死刑)」에서도 기독교적인 이미지와 시어들이 빈번하게 쓰이고 있다. 특히 장시 「사형」에서는 예수의 죽음을 사형 언도와 집행 과정을 중심으로 묘사하고 있는데, 이는 예수의 신(神)적인 측면보다는 인간으로서의 고통과 고뇌를 실존적인 측면에서 객관적으로 드러내고자 의도한 것을 알 수 있었다. 고은의 시 세계를 선시적 차원과 불교적 세계관으로 분석한 기존의 연구들은 있었으나, 기독교적인 특징과 이미지를 중심으로 한 연구는 본고에서 처음 시도한 바, 이에 본 연구의 의의가 있다고 생각한다.

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of Christianity found in Ko Un’s early poems created in the 1960’s. Ko Un’s early works are mainly focused on the pursuit of extinction and death, estheticism, or tragedy. But among his early works, this author pays attention to Christian images distinctly found in his works taking an incest composition. First of all, this study analyzes one of his representative works, 「Tuberculosis」, and 「Sachi」 of which text is associated with 「Tuberculosis」 in terms of Christian images and characteristics. It has been found that he borrows Christian images which are distinctive in his text set with a composition of consanguineous love as in ‘The Sister and I’ or ‘The Sister-in-law and I’ letting us think of taboo or violation, original sin, or a sense of guilt, and with that, he gives effects on elevating tragedy within his works. In particular, about the meaning of the sister’s death manifested in 「Sachi」, this author sees that it discontinues the poetic speaker’s sense of guilt and works as punishment and catharsis that lead him to reach self-forgiveness and condolences. Aside from this, he also often adopts Christian images and poetic words in his 3rd poem collection and his long poem, 「Death Penalty」, as well. Particularly in the long poem, 「Death Penalty」, he describes Jesus’ death with the process of sentencing and executing a death penalty, and with this, we can see the poet’s intention to show Jesus’ pain and agony as a human objectively in the existential perspective, not his divine aspects. Although there has been advanced research analyzing Ko Un’s poetic world with regard to Zen poems or Buddhistic view to the world, this study is significant in that it has attempted to investigate it mainly around Christian characteristics and images for the first time.

This is a critical essay exploring the problems of translation through the actual cases of two prominent English and American translators, Brother Anthony and David McCann, who are well known for translating modern and contemporary Korean poets’ works. This essay reviews and compares their translations of works by Seo Jungju, Ko Un and Shin Kyongrim, who represent contemporary Korean poetry and also appeal to Westerners most. Pointing out not only the errors and awkward expressions but misunderstanding and insufficient grasp of the meaning of the poems in these translations, this essay offers alternative possibilites for revision and improvement. The problem of translation is centered around the issues of faithfulness and readability. Benjamin suggests a third realm beyond these two, which we have yet to attain with much effort. Yet there is another significant problem of translation reflecting interrelationship between two different cultures. Collaboration between a native literary scholar and a foreign translator is one way of closing the cultural gap between the original and translated texts. Here, it is important for the critical input of native literary scholars to be actively reflected in the translation process.