The Signs of ‘Sound’, Record of Rancor - Reading The Foggy Sea, a Sequence of Han Seung-won

Sound exists unseen. Therefore it is perceived to be present and absent at the same time and we are drawn to a world in which audible sound and inaudible one exist together. Though it can’t be seen, touched, and held, sound creates exuberant cluster of a signifying system beyond the layer of language and consciousness. Considering the susceptibility of resonance up to the particularity of space and material, sound possesses traits as a sign, which is to be analyzed differently by the atmosphere and context. To begin with, the various sounds in the sequence The Foggy Sea, consisted of Kerosene(1976), The Foggy Sea(1978), and Flower and Darkness(1979) function as the central theme, which leads the flow, ponders into the deeper sphere, and steers the stream of consciousness of characters. All and sundry sounds navigate the record of accumulated rancor as converging into the feelings of Sik, the protagonist, which are at times stifled, uneasy, rancorous, vexed or sorrowful. The themes of ‘Rancor- Historical remembrance- Sound’ organize the sequence tightly. The status of sounds in The Foggy Sea could be described mainly by verbs like ‘sounds-wanders’, ‘talks-transmits’, and ‘absorbed-drops’, which show the stream of consciousness. These sounds transform into Cry, Rumors, Fog and Echo as they represent historical disturbance from Yeosoon Rebellion to Korean Civil War in thorough ways. Cry, an expression of agitated sentiment, suggests the unstable identity, which was formed through turmoil while Rumors determine the phase of consciousness as a reflection of collective consciousness and contribute to making Sik’s father who is undecided in terms of ideology, as a scapegoat with an aid of an imitation instinct of the public. The term ‘Reactionary’, which is rather vague, eventually corresponds to the Red as anti-communist government established. The sound of sisters’ crying, intimating their being victims by domineering and violent men, and ideological conflict, is absorbed in the fog as it forms drops in it. The Echo in the fog, which lacks articulate sound portraits the silent Others in bleak history. As it’s pondered, the consciousness of Sik and sounds as signs in the sequence The Foggy Sea illuminate the grim memory of ‘the suffered’, who have failed to be perceived as they deserve. The signs of sound embody the unspoken pain under Yusin regime in a thorough and overwhelming way.