Metonymy and dominant ideology in historical novels - How to read Son Chang-seop’s “Bong-Sul-Lang”

“Bong-Sul-Lang”, the only full-length novel written by Son Chang-seop and the last novel published under his name in the Korean literary world, is significant in the study of Son Chang-seop’s novels. The object of metonymy gradually expanded in Son Chang-seop's novels as they progressed to include the daily lives of refugees, couple and family narratives centered on relationships between men and women, and historical novels. The theme that remains unchanged throughout the transformation of his novels lies in the importance of personal life, surviving the storms of history and establishing one's own life. The end of this narrative, in which Sanhwa, the main character of 「Bongsulang」, protects himself, his family, and all violence by using a baton (棒), a metaphor for masculinity, as a weapon, and finally achieves victory, is the end of this narrative in which Sanhwa achieves victory using men as tools. It is a peaceful life. What Son Chang-seop wants to talk about through “Bong-Sul-Lang” is not a hero’s biography or a success story, but the life after violence that an individual gains in the process of struggle. 「Bong-Sul-Lang」 uses as a large narrative the process of Baek Do-seong's daughter Sanhwa and the county governor's son Kim Gwang-se, who are at odds with each other but then become lovers, and focuses on the lives and liberation of ordinary people who are persecuted due to the conflict with the ruling order. The time and space of Goryeo under the Yuan Dynasty, which is the background of “Bong-Sul-Lang” has close spatial and temporal proximity to the modern and contemporary history of Korea, which sequentially experienced Japanese colonial rule and division. This is a kind of metonym for the violence of national ideology. Through this novel, we can confirm the significance of Son Chang-seop's novel, which recognizes power as a masculine ruling order and practices constant denial and rejection of it through novel writing.