문화적 기억과 문학적 기억으로서의 여성시 -독일의 힐데 도민과 한국의 고정희 시를 사례로- = Female Poetry as Cultural and Literary Memory -A Comparative Study of German Poet, Hilde Domin, and Korean Poet, Goh Jung Hee

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Literature and memory cannot be separated since all literature is based on a writer`s memory. Without memories there would be no literature. Therefore we can say that mankind`s memory itself is literature. Poets write in order to be reconciled with their past memories. Contemporary humanities scholar are interested in how memory reconciliation is related to the past cultural and literary memories. Literature and cultural memory is directly related to collective cultures and identities. Thus, we need to look at how memory is formalized in literary and poetical contexts. This paper examines the similarities between German and Korean poetess in question. Poetry experiences a turning point after World War II in Germany, whereas Korean poetry changes under political pressure. In this paper two poetes` literary work, which exhibits various motifs that show both literary and cultural memory is examined. The reason cultural and literary memory has meaning is because of the negative (ex negativo) which surfaces the memories. For example, the poet Goh Jung Hee experienced Gwangju Democratic Movement (April 19th, 1980). Hilde Domin`s memories come from surviving 22 years in captivity while hiding from the holocaust and it`s aftermath. Both poets experienced events which were unforgettable and not fully recovered from their tragedies. In the end, they used poetry to express how they felt which gave birth to great poetry. This could also explain why the poetry produced today has none of the depth or timelessness of the poetry of the past; today`s poetess have not experienced such historical tragedies. Goh Jung Hee represents those who participated in the social upheaval and her work depicts how miserable the changes were during the 1970s and 1980s in the Korean political democracy movement. In the case of Hilde Domin, in the 1960s the Germans wanted to atone their mistakes and past atrocities, which happened in the form of anti war rallies to which Hilde thought the social revolution has a will of its own. In her poetry she considered what would be the new function and role of the German people. The similarities between these two poets is that they share a female poetic voice which shows the deep retrospection, forgiveness and embracing, unique to female artists. Hilde Domin wanted to overcome the Holocaust, in her writing a long tunnel represents the holocaust and the long road to recovery for the German people. In the case of Goh Jung Hee, the Korean darkness of the 70`s and 80`s is featured in her work. In addition, their work represents the different era`s in which they both lived. As women they wanted to talk about the historical scars of both of their nations and the healing which is still occurring even today, this shows both a literal and cultural memory. In other words, the texts that they produce and are based on their own memories can serve as both a cultural and collective memory, their poetry acts as a voice telling the story of their respective eras told from a woman`s perspective, making it unique. The suffering that they experienced left a hole in them and both felt that their writing could fill the void. Hilde Domin looked at her poetry as an attempt to reconcile herself whereas, Goh Jung Hee`s poetry is based on Christian values and she focused on the redemption, desperation, anger and consolation using different motifs and methods of expression. Hilde Domin began her life as a poet and a fugitive while running from the Holocaust. It wasn`t until the 1960s that she began publishing her poetry, which quickly brought her notoriety due to the subject matter. In other words, she experienced Nazi political idealism from the very beginning and was one of the few Jewish people fortunate enough to see the end. She worked during the social instability of the 60s. She had success with both social activist poetry as well as traditional German lyrical poetry. She did not think that poetry was merely a vehicle for a political message or reality in which people live. Hilde said of her poetry that it was the way in which she could clearly see the blurry images which popped into her consciousness, she would write her poems and the images would take on clarity. She felt that poetry was a medium which could never be fully delivered. From the origin of this thesis, of cultural and literary memory the two poetess suffered not only agony and isolation for a protracted amount of time, but also in childhood they also felt deficiency, pain and solitude which came from exile. Both of these act in conjunction to trigger their desire to create poetry, because literature is ultimately the place where the writer`s memory is stored. Literature can reproduce and reconstruct memory by itself. Literature is the medium between personal and collective memory. Their poems play a role of the people`s memory and recollection of a specific time in history, a specific national and cultural memory which in turn become Geschichtslyrik. Furthermore, their sentiment transcends their era and reaches out to contemporary generation. The harder we try to distance ourselves from Auschwitz the closer we get to the crime. Thus, as time goes by historical events do not diminish; paradoxically they become closer and more vivid. As women, they can approach past memories more sophisticatedly, enabling the meaning grow exponentially as cultural memories. Their poems show that cultural memory can find humanity itself when people mourn for the dead. Particularly, Goh Jung Hee`s poems mourn for those who sacrificed their lives(Trauerlyrik), as well as condolences for those who remain(Trostlyrik). These characteristics can be easily found in their poetry, such as Auschwitz, The Spring of Jiri Mountain, and Tearflower. In conclusion, their poetry transcends time and space, remaining relevant. They overcame the historical suffering, which is why their poems can be considered cultural memories. Finally, they wrote poems as women with all the scars, which had come from their sufferings, and that is how we can call their work cultural memories and the female voice.