‘자발성’을 통해 본 신경숙 소설의 주인공 성격 연구 - 『외딴방』을 중심으로 -

A study on the main character of Shin Kyung Suk's novels focused on ‘the spontaneity’

The main characters in Shin Gyeong-sook's novels are dependent. One of the reasons why is because of the dependent disposition obtained from having internalized the desire of a proxy, called 'the conditions of mother's happiness'. Moreover, the speaker of is seized with a masochist emotion of feeling useless. The speaker indirectly tolerates the user's irrational demands by trying to be the author rather than being hostile towards the reader. As she believes that her life is decided by the company, writing this character is an expression of the reality's orders disguised as voluntary ideal. The reason for the 1980s appearing in On , and , but not being fore-grounded, is because the author pays more attention on loneliness and anxiety rather than irony of reality. The fundamental reason the main characters in Shin Gyeong-sook's novels couldn't be voluntary lies in the author's defeatist view of the world. In , the speaker symbolizes 'Ji Hwan', survivor of the Sam Pung accident, 'the boy' from Yeong Deung Po station and 'the forest of a snowy heron' and tries to express the dignity as a human, life's value and hope. Symbols imply the limitation and possibility of free will at the same time, conceal the realistic defeat. However, even though the speaker speaks of hope, the sentiment between the lines is defeatism. The fact that hope can only be shown through symbolism is an emphasis on the fact that it is unattainable.