[학술논문] 역사와 침묵: 코가와의 소설을 한국인의 시각에서 읽기

Kogawa's novels, such as Obasan and Itsuka, powerfully portray a time of racist discrimination against Japanese Canadians during and after World War Ⅱ. Canadians once read Obasan with shame, but now perhaps as a novel of national healing. The readers of Japanese ancestry, on the other hand, see in the novel the sad proof that Japanese ethnic culture is being diluted. Thus it seems that where a reader stands determines what he/she sees in the novels. Koreans stand in a special position, since Korea was under the domination of Japan during the same period while Japanese Canadians suffered from racism. This study is an attempt to examine the novels from a Korean point of view. \nJapnaese-Canadians wish to be seen only as "Canadians," and hide their ethnic identity, even though they dwell in the hyphen between Japanese tale, is a Canadian story. This imperialistic story, told by mother to daughter every night is part of the Japanese culture handed down to the new generation. Korean readers, who can associate this story with Japan's colonization of the Korean peninsula, cannot see it as anything other than a Japanese story. \nIt is interesting to see that Emily, who protests against racism in Canada, keeps silent about the Japanese atrocities in Japan's colonized lands. And it is ironic for Korean have made against Japan. Emily knows about her later death, but keeps silent about the truth, because her sister (Naomi's mother) asks her "not to tee" about it. Together with Obasan she conspires to tell Naomi only her sister's idealized version. Naomi's mother is representative of her Japanese origin and, by extension, Japanese history. Her mother's destiny parallels Japan's, and her aunt (Emily) hides the ugly face of her mother and motherland. Thus Naomi even idealizes her mother as a "martyr" of the atomic bomb. The bomb is nother but destructive and inhuman for them; but, for Koreans it brings about their liberation from the inhuman domination of the Japanese empire. This is evidenced by Richard E. Kim's novel, Lost Names, which covers almost the same period as Obasan. \nKoreans can be resisting readers by asserting themselves against the control of the text. Their resistance to the authorial sensibilities of a Japanese Canadian can open a new perspective on the work, and thus help widen the horizon of interpretation of Kogawa's novels.

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