이 글에서는 한국의 일본군 군위안부의 증언을 통하여 포스트식민의 상흔의 성격을 조명하고자 한다. 흔히 가정하는 것처럼 군위안부 피해는 일제시대에만 한정된 것이 아니라 식민지 이후에도 지속되었고, 성적 피해만이 아니라 정신적 사회적 측면과 관련되어 있으며, 식민지 이전과 이후의 상흔은 다르지만 구조적으로 서로 연결되어 있는 것이다. 또한 포스트식민의 상흔을 밝히는 노력은 이론적이고 정치적인 문제와도 관련된다. 포스트식민의 상흔의 조명을 통하여 군위안부 피해자들의 피해의 책임이 일본정부만이 아니라 탈식민 한국정부와 한국시민에게도 있다는 것을 말할 수 있게 되기 때문이다. 본론에서는 탈식민 페미니즘과 포스트식민의 상흔의 연구의 의의를 논의한 뒤, 증언 분석을 시작한다. 본 논문은 군안부 피해생존자 67명의 증언을 중심텍스트로 하여 피해의 범주들을 육체적 측면, 정신적 측면, 사회적 측면으로 나누어 구성하고, 전형적인 증언을 제시한다. 구술자와 청취자간의 공감을 핵으로 하는 여성주의 증언 연구에서 구술자가 자신의 상처를 드러낸다는 것은 이 상처를 고정시키는 것이 아니라 그 상처를 풀어내고자 함이다. 상처를 풀어내는 것은 그 책임 소재를 밝히는 것 뿐 아니라 보다 궁극적으로는 피해자가 치유의 길을 떠나기 위함이다. 이 점에서 이 글은 피해를 밝힌다는 것과 피해자화(victimization)는 전혀 다른 차원의 행위로서 사회구조적 피해를 드러내는 피해자는 그 자체로 힘과 용기를 필요로 한다는 것을 강조한다. 청취자가 피해를 드러내는 동기가 이들을 소외시키는 것이 아니라 공동체에 포섭하기 위한 것이라면 피해 이야기를 중심으로 한 정의구현의 논리가 중요하다. 이 글은 생존자들의 포스트식민의 상흔을 재현함으로써, 역사쓰기와 정의 구현을 위한 주체로서 불러들이는 증언 청취자의 책임에 주목한다.

This study attempts to represent Korean comfort women survivors' trauma in terms of its postcoloniality. As often supposed, the agonies of being a ‘comfort women was not confined into the period of colonial rule but extended to postcolonial Korea. The pain was not only about sexual exploitation, but interrelated with psychological and social dimensions. The efforts to investigate postcolonial pain and agony that the former Korean comfort women also have legal as well as theoretical meanings about the responsibility for them. When we fully uncover the damages of being a ‘comfort woman' during and after the colonial rule, Korean government and citizens as well as Japanese government and citizens ought to bear the legal and moral responsibility for the damage. In the main text, 67 testimonies are analysed. They are classified in terms of the physical, psychological and social aspects of trauma. As far as the kernel of feminist testimony studies lie in 'empathy' between speakers and listeners, speaking pain and agony amounts to the act of sharing and overcoming them. In order to overcome the trauma, not only the question of responsibility but more fundamentally, healing the victim-survivors are critical. In this respect, the study questions meaning of telling the painful story in relation to ‘victimization.' Since a story becomes audible only with the presence of listening ears, certain stories are always a co-product of speakers and listeners. As far as the purpose of listening lies in incorporation of historical victim-survivors into one's community, meaning of the survivor's trauma, testimony, and stories cannot be confined into those of ‘victim.' Rather we need to create methods that locates the survivor's story in the center of the justice reasoning and history-writing.

This study attempts to represent Korean comfort women survivors' trauma in terms of its postcoloniality. As often supposed, the agonies of being a ‘comfort women was not confined into the period of colonial rule but extended to postcolonial Korea. The pain was not only about sexual exploitation, but interrelated with psychological and social dimensions. The efforts to investigate postcolonial pain and agony that the former Korean comfort women also have legal as well as theoretical meanings about the responsibility for them. When we fully uncover the damages of being a ‘comfort woman' during and after the colonial rule, Korean government and citizens as well as Japanese government and citizens ought to bear the legal and moral responsibility for the damage. In the main text, 67 testimonies are analysed. They are classified in terms of the physical, psychological and social aspects of trauma. As far as the kernel of feminist testimony studies lie in 'empathy' between speakers and listeners, speaking pain and agony amounts to the act of sharing and overcoming them. In order to overcome the trauma, not only the question of responsibility but more fundamentally, healing the victim-survivors are critical. In this respect, the study questions meaning of telling the painful story in relation to ‘victimization.' Since a story becomes audible only with the presence of listening ears, certain stories are always a co-product of speakers and listeners. As far as the purpose of listening lies in incorporation of historical victim-survivors into one's community, meaning of the survivor's trauma, testimony, and stories cannot be confined into those of ‘victim.' Rather we need to create methods that locates the survivor's story in the center of the justice reasoning and history-writing.

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Korean Comfort Women, testimony, trauma, victim, postcoloniality, postcolonial feminism