생태적 상상력과 리얼리즘적 정신

Abstract

A Study on Ecological Imagination and Realistic Spirit

It is after the 1990s in modern poetry in Korea that poetry works based on ‘nature’ and ‘environment’ appeared in the name of ‘ecological poetry’. The reason why ecological poetry or ecological discussion fully appeared in this period is that environmental problems became the urgent question in Korean society. Critical voice was increased on environmental pollution and ecological destruction and various discussion on ‘ecological literature’ was made in the literary world.

It is true that poets mutually responded with nature and learned the wisdom of life from it in the long tradition of lyric poetry. Nature and lyric poetry became a principal origin of poetic imagination. However, ecological poetry rising suddenly after the 1990s has discriminative points from understanding the nature of traditional lyric poetry. It emphasized the importance of nature not as the background to convey inner emotion but as natural environment itself and there were many cases which did not result in lyric identification. Moreover, it was this period that poems denouncing and disclosing ecological environment polluted and destroyed due to industrialization were intensively published to bring people to an awareness.

However, as time went by, poets realized the need for more fundamental reflection on the relationship between man and nature not only as a short-term question or a temporary fashion. The realization led ecological literature not to the complaint of simple environmental problems or the conveyance of illuminating messages, but to the exploration and restoration of true harmony and balance between nature and man. It means that not only ecological problems were accepted in the material level, but also ecological imagination became an important power to recognize and shape things

The early 1990s when ecological poetry rose suddenly accords with the period when disputes on ‘realistic poetry’. The disputes began because of the fall of Eastern Europe and the ebb of ideology. Environmental problems became one of immediate questions in the process of searching for the possibility of realism that replaces a ideological role. As the realistic spirit of poetry is embodied through close and dynamic interaction between poetic subjects and reality of the day, poets in this period could extend the denotation of realistic poetry through the combination of realistic spirit and ecological imagination.

It was considered in the history of Korean literature that ecological imagination focused on ‘nature’ was contrary to realistic spirit focused on ‘reality’. However, since the 1990s, poetic reality or cultural topography has been changed and ecological poetry has had common areas with realistic poetry. It was because environmental pollution, moral depravity, and a weakened community basis as well as political areas appeared as new objects for criticism of reality. Then, unlike traditional lyric poetry, ecological poetry could have critical spirit of reality about nature and environment and realistic poetry and ecological poetry could share a new interface.

The 1990s was the turning point to narrow the distance between ecological imagination and realistic spirit. The purpose of this study is to clarify how such changes influenced poets’ creative process. It will contribute to new understanding of the poetry world in the 1990s and provide an important suggestion to explain the process of changing this author’s poetic world. Since the debut in 『Literary Current』(Poetry), this author has published five poetry books. In this course, I have strived to actively accept ecological thinking and imagination to overcome the imitation of realistic poetry. This study attempts to select and analyze works which ecological imagination and realistic spirit of poetry are combined in my creative poetry according to the subject consciousness of this study to attach them as data.