이 논문은, 낭만주의의 핵심이념인 '아이'라는 시적 관념이 20년대 낭만주의 시에 있어 어떤 문학적 의미를 가지는지를 규명해보는 데 목적을 두고 있다. 그 의미를 규명해보기 위해 본 논문은 20년대에 가장 선명하게 낭만주의라는 이념을 표방하며 미적 전위로서 근대시의 구축에 총력을 경주한 『白潮』 동인들이 20년대 발표한 시편들에 초점을 맞추면서, '아이'라는 코드에 내재 된 의미를 특징적 화법, 상상력의 방식, 이미지를 중심으로 조명해 보았다.
존재의 자연이자 시적 상상의 근거지로 인식된 아이라는 낭만주의적 이념은 일제치하라는 특수한 상황에서 시대적 긴장과 갈등을 첨예하게 드러내는 주요한 시적 통로이다. 식민지 시인에게 있어 아이는, 현실에 노예적인 굴종을 할 수밖에 없는 불운한 존재의 운명을 지시하는 은유이자, 자기근원으로 회복할 수 있는 거대한 가능성을 지닌 심리적 상징이기도 하며, 부정적으로 경험된 식민지적 근대라는 현실에서 보다 폭넓고 다양하게 변주된 세계인식의 한 표상이다.
아이의 이념은 첫째, 문학을 자연적인 정서의 표출로 본 낭만주의적 인식, 둘째는 ‘거인’같이 경험된 제국주의에 대한 식민지 시인들의 심정적인반동, 셋째는 범죄적이고 폭압적인 현실과 엇물린 꿈꾸기의 공간의 필요에서 호명되었다고 정리할 수 있을 것이다. 자연의 아들이자 사회의 고아로서 존재하는 시인이란 낭만주의의 특이한 이념은 백조 동인들의 시에서 질병, 죽음, 눈물 등의 이미지와 포개지며 광범위하게 모성지향으로 나타나는 반시대적 인식을 드러내 보인다.
근대가 지시하는 분명하고 논리적이고 사실적인 세계, 자연스런 생의 근원을 파괴하는 세계의 악을 의심하고 회의하는 데서 아이의 이미지는 출발한다. 때문에 순수한 아이라는 관념은, 강자 위주로 설정된 근대에 대한 강력한 저항의 함의를 가질 수 있고, 존재의 자연처럼 높여있던 모든 것을 수탈하고 파괴한 식민지적 정황에 강렬한 물음을 던질 수 있는 주요 거점이다. ‘주체화’라는 문제가 강력한 아버지상으로 존재하는 제국의 이념적 분자로 동일화될 수 있는 상황에서, 어머니 자연과 긴밀하게 접속된 무구한 아이의 눈은, 자신의 기억인 역사를 저항적으로 일깨우는 식민지 문학의 일반적인 전략과도 깊이 맞물리며 매우 아름답고 감동적인 표현을 얻게 된다.
In this said paper, the multilateral meaning that is implied in the romantic code, the child, was luminated with the focus brought to poems of 'Baekjo' coterie in 1920s. The ideology of romanticism, the child,, cognized as nature of existence as well as the stronghold of poetic imagination is a significant versified passage that speaks for the strain and conflict of the days under the unusual situation of Japanese oppression. It can be arranged that the ideal of the child was called upon from the facts, firstly, of romantic recognition in which literature was seen as the expression of natural sentiment, secondly, of the emotional reaction of the colonial poets against imperialism that was experienced as 'a giant', and thirdly, of the need for a space for dreaming entangled with the oppressive reality.
The peculiar ideology of romanticism that a poet is of, who makes his existence as a son of nature and orphan of the society is keenly laid one after the other with the portrait of the child who is left as a last human dreaming in the criminal modern society, which is overlapped with the image of disease, death, and tear, etc. in the poems of Baekjo associates, revealing the anti-time cognition making its motherhood-oriented appearance comprehensively.
Especially, that the Baekjo coterie should make use of the problematic code of 'the child' for the most part in the imperialistic era where the 'Chosun' that had been existed as a naive child should be offered in sacrifice can deserve a valuation of a new type of symbolization that incorporated the erraticism and tragedy of the times with the intrinsic issue of literature Which showed that the colonial poets who could not resist to take the cynical interest in history implied the critical vision for the modern times.
The romantic ideology of the child, though which does not greatly stand out in the poems and essays on poetry of Baekjo colleagues has not a few influence on their viewpoint toward the world, their narration, and their composition of image. Especially, on the aspect of literature achievement, it should be judged to be greatly reassessed that how much 'the child' functions on their poetic reproduction. The cognition of romanticism that dreamed the potentiality of poetic cure of nature in the ill-fated epoch and the self-realization on the trend of modern literature in which the rethoric realization was seen as the individuality of literature are the two key factors that forms the aesthetic consciousness of Baekjo coterie. As these two elements are converged on the inside of the code, the child, the 'baekjo (swan)' comes to make the wave that is pure and meaningful in the Korea's modern poem history, like a white ripple rising sorrowfully at dawn.
As for a poet in the colonial times, a child is not only a metaphor indicating the fate of the existence of misfortune that has no choice but to succumb to servility, but the psychological symbol with a huge potentiality that can recover to the self-origin. The image of the child starts from where the modern times directs the definite, logical, and factual world and where the evil is of suspicion and skepticism in the world the natural origin of life is destroyed. The pure notion of the child is, therefore, a main ground where a powerful question can be asked to the colonial situation in which a strong resistance could be set up toward the modern times instituted mainly by the powerful, and all was toppled down that hd been levelled high like the nature of existance. I like to pay attention to the fact that the 'Baekjo' coterie came by the most touching and beautiful expressions linked with the modern technology, through the ideology of the innocent child who was deserted to the cruel and miserable situation.