김용익 소설에 나타난 기억의 장소: 「촛불이 꺼질 때까지」, 「밀수선」, 행복한 나날을 중심으로

Abstract

Yong-ik Kim is one of the most highly esteemed first-generation Korean American novelists. He can be distinguished from the other Korean American writers, such as Youngjill Kang and Richard Kim because of his bilingual works as a full-time writer and local color of Korea especially of Tongyeong, his hometown. Specifically he usually sets up the background of his novels in his early days in a fishing village, Songwaji. Pierre Nora argues that established history cannot inspire oneness any longer with individuals who have fragmented memories. He emphasizes on gathering these memories on tangible and intangible objects as collective memory which can be shared with group members. Kim’s early stories, “Till the Candle Blew Out”, “Smuggler’s Boat” and The Happy Days, are full of the images based on his early day’s reminiscences. The very Korean family relationship, friends, custom, food and even the landscape are so well-organized in the background that they arouse his longing for the homeland which can not be found and shared as the other in the U.S at all. The images of the homeland are well harmonized with its landscape, family, custom and food peculiar to Korea as the site of memories in his early stories to inspire solidity and identity with the group which he aches with longing for.