ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

Kim Yujung and Yi Sang, two major Korean authors during the 1930’s Japanese colonial era, composed and structured their literary works as a response to the disease they were both stricken with. Whereas the former embraced illness as a natural part of his life, the latter struggled to overcome it. The disease with the most critical significance for the two authors was none other than tuberculosis, for it led to both their deaths. This article is a sociocultural study intended to examine in modern Korean literature how tuberculosis, as a disease, clashed with the modern culture of Korea. To go on further, it observes how Kim Yujung and Yi Sang－who died 18 days apart in March and April of 1937, respectively－each captured the issue of tuberculosis in their major works through compositional and structural methods. By analyzing the most basic narrative elements in the two authors’ works－namely, the characters, time, and space－I will show how tuberculosis functions as a literary sign. Furthermore, this article will explicate the way in which Kim Yujung and Yi Sang’s contrasting perceptions of diseases shape each of their works, hence differentiating one from the other.

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