The Literary Field and Writer's Situation in Busan, the Provisional Capital during the Korean War : Focusing on Kim Dong-ri and Kim Jeong-han

This study deals with the question of the survival and existence of writers in the context of sociology of literature. Specifically, it focuses on the literary field of Busan during the period before and after the historical situation of the Korean War. In particular, it develops the discussion focusing on the situations of writers and their works, such as Kim Jeong-han, who lived in Busan at the time, and Kim Dong-ri, who fled to Busan. The Korean War was a multidimensional and complex event in which many actors had intertwined interests. In short, it is an event that cannot be simply replaced by the hierarchical perspective of center and periphery, central and local. This study interprets Busan, which became a refugee capital through the Korean War, as a ‘literary field’ in which the question of the survival and existence of writers is sharply highlighted. The emergency event of the war became the impetus for the political center to move from Seoul to Busan. Therefore, Busan during the Korean War emerged as a place of eventfulness in which the existing hierarchy of center/periphery was disrupted and reorganized. This study deals with two writers who were active in Busan in this paradoxical situation. Kim Jeong-han needed to change his mind because of his history related to leftist ideology, and he needed to stop writing as a symbolic act of self-punishment to resolve his ethical and conscientious issues. Kim Dong-ri had to abstract the specific place of Busan into a metaphysical space in order to resolve the secular reality of the loss of literary power in a symbolic way. The realistic problem of survival thus showed two different aspects of existence.