A Study On Chinese Images Of Baek Seok's Poetry

All images come from consciousness of us and "the other".In Baek Seok's poetry,Chinese images are of vital importance.When Baek Seok describes "the other",it actually represents description of his own,especially when "the other" is of "exotic image".The image can express things he hardly feels or imagines about local culture.In this sense,analyzing Baek Seok's poems from perspective of "Chinese images" can better define the poet,considering intersubjectivity,that where his starting point lies and how he writes about himself.In a way,we are able to have an answer to or a clue on his existence more clearly.Since 1980s,Korean's research on Baek Seok's poetry has launched.Up to now,academic study of Baek Seok's poetry is fruitful.According to statistics,research papers related to Baek Seok's poetry and literature reaches more than 200,most of which focus on traditionality,local culture basis,and modernity of his poetry.Seldom keeps an attention to "Chinese images" in his poems.Even if the research paper mentions it,it is fragment or analyzed under another theme framework but lack of thorough analysis and overall view.Therefore,this thesis tries to study "Chinese images" in Baek Seok's poems comprehensively based on text analysis from Comparative Literature Imago logie angle so as to illustrate what Baek Seok wants to express and explain "the present" hidden from the poet's poem.Hopefully,a new possible way of understanding and paraphrasing his poetry can be provided.Through massive analysis on "Chinese images" in his poems,the thesis finds that"leisure" is repeatedly mentioned accompanied with "old and profound",in which the main body of "Chinese images" is established.If "old and profound" is his imagined China based on his Chinese education background and reading experience,which also actually becomes the image of "the current" in his eyes,"leisure" can be considered as his own personal value and philosophy reflected on "the current" Chinese."Leisure" coukl refer to Chinese cracking melon seeds or Chinese bathing in the bathhouse.Baek Seok recognizes and praises for this "leisure",for he reads Taoism's peacefulness and nihility,an self-sufficient mental status that destructs purposes and efficiency.The poet writes about Chinese "leisure" and speaks out his self-constructed philosophy of Utopian-like Taoism through it.Chuang Tzu's pleasant journey advocates that the Perfect man has no thought of self,the Spirit-like man is none of merit,the Sagely-minded man is none of fame.In other words,one is able to get rid of fame,exceed the limit of material world,back to where life originally exists,embrace the universe and the truth,discover one's true self and the meaning of life."Pleasant journey",in fact,is a journey of ego pursuance and metaphor of spiritual space.Baek Seok uses the image of "leisure Chinese" to elaborate his yearn for the vast spiritual world.On the other hand,by portraying the ethnic groups and nations once active on the ancient land of North Manchuria,the transition zone between China and ancient Korea,the poet outlines his imagination about the "community".This "community"broke the boundaries,as were among modern "nations" and "countries",showing a world of peaceful coexistence of all peoples,as well as "transnational" harmony.That was a happy era of peaceful coexistence of all ethnic groups,when mutual induction existed not only among people,but also between the nature and mankind.This"community",which had long been lost as a kind of harmonious and vigorous state of life,was analogous with the traditional community,which used to be harmonious and abundant as"I" perceived in my childhood in the anthology Deer.Thus,it is reasonable to say that the transnational community in the poems by Baek Seok is in essence an extension of the traditional community he once experienced.Although the community had long been lost,the poet had never given up his imagination and pursuit of it—a community beyond boundaries among nations.The pattern of harmonious relationship had been established as a paradigm at the very beginning and permeated through all the poems about the Manchuria,and reflected in his own relationships with Chinese people.To some degree,what Baek Seok saw in Chinese complexion was all about "the past",or in his own words,"my placenta",i.e.a kind of "primitiveness",a primordial "ego",and a primeval world.With the help of the Chinese images,we are both able to have a clearer understanding of the poet himself in respect of "intersubjectivity",and to approach and interpret his works in another possible perspective.