Abstract

In the history of Korean literature, evaluations on 『Jirisan』 (Lee Byeong-ju) are bisected. Some evaluate it as a novel of authentic records which reproduces the history before and after the emancipation objectively while others say it takes advantage of anti-communistic ideology. This study analyzes that difference is resulted not from the distinction of perspectives but from cracks in the text. This is associated with the process of 『Jirisan』’s publication. 『Jirisan』 was published serially in 『Sedae』 from 1972, and then, part of the manuscript was published in 1978 and the whole edition published in a series came to be republished in 1981. After that, in 1981 and 1985, part of the follow-up story was printed on the magazine, and then, with the memoirs of those two years as materials, the sixth and seventh volumes were again published through ‘revision’. In other words, the publication of 『Jirisan』 is divided into that of the edition published in a series and that of the edition published in 1985 including the contents of revision. The theme of the work, 『Jirisan』 differs according to the point of its completion you may think of. This researcher pays attention to the difference of perspectives between the contents up to the fifth volume and those of the sixth and seventh volumes. Particularly, his evaluation on ‘partisans’ seems to have changed. In the edition published in a series, he extended ‘partisans’ into the independence movement in the Japanese colonial era under the Revitalizing Reforms system and adopted the representation of ‘partisans’ three-dimensionally whereas in the sixth and seventh volumes, he reproduced ‘partisans’ as beings that were the ‘doctrinaire’ and ‘vicious’ ‘Reds’ and had to be punished. In brief, with 『Jirisan』, he represented ‘partisans’ in the background of history before and after the emancipation and segmented the discourse, representation and ideology of the Cold War system, but in the process of revision, he stitched up ‘partisans’ as beings that were evil and losers. Consequently, with 『Jirisan』, he revealed the process of division and contention that proceeded around anti-communism/capitalism within the abyss of the 1970’s to 80’s and reproduced ‘partisans’ as beings that were either ‘hostile (the Reds)’ or ‘unknown (losers)