한국 현대시에서 미국의 출현은, 일본이 미국을 상대로 한 ‘태평양전 쟁’(1941.12.7)을 통해서이다. 한국이 일제의 식민지로 전락(1910)한 지 30여 년이 경과한 시점이었는데, 이 시기 한국현대시의 특징적 성격은 ‘친일ㆍ반미시’의 양상을 띤다. 일제 로부터 ‘해방’(1945)되자마자 남한에 진주한 미군의 시적 형상은 ‘점령군, 압제자’로 집약된 다. 본질적으로, ‘한국전쟁’(1950.6.25～1953.7.27)에서 드러나는 미국ㆍ미국인의 문학적 이 미지도 이와 다를 바 없다. 미국을 “조선에서 침략전쟁을 도발한 간섭자”로 규정하는 북한 의 경우, 그것은 ‘월가(Wall Street), 달라(dollar), 승냥이, 제국주의, 양캐, 식인종, 양키, 학살 자, 강간범’ 등의 정치ㆍ경제적인 ‘제국주의적 침탈자’로 나타난다. 이러한 시적 인식은, 지리적ㆍ이념적으로 북한과 밀착된 중국 조선족 시문학의 경우도 동일하다. 널리 보면 남한시도 여기서 예외일 수 없다.

This paper discusses how ‘image of America’ or ‘poetic perception of America’ displayed in the development of modern Korean poetry has been changed. As the US navy grew steadily in power by organizing ‘the America and Pacific Fleets in 1882, the East India and China Fleet in 1835, and the Asia Fleet in 1865, the US set foot on the Korean peninsula through <gunboat diplomacy> in 1871’. It was through the Pacific War (1941~1945) between Japan and the US that America was first mentioned in Korean modern poems. This was the period during which the Korean people had been being ruled for almost 30 years by the Japanese government, and Korean poems took as their motif people’s ‘pro-Japan, anti-America attitudes’. When Korea became independent from Japan in 1945, the US army occupied South Korea. Their poetic image then can be dubbed ‘occupation force’ or an ‘oppressor’. The literary image of America or Americans that derived from the Korean War (1950~53) was essentially the same as the previous one. In North Korea, where America is defined as an ‘intervener who waged a war in the Korean peninsula’, the image in question amounts to an ‘imperialistic exploiter’ who represents such concepts as ‘Wall Street, dollar, jackal, imperialism, western bitch, cannibal, Yankee, slaughter, and rapist’. This kind of poetic awareness is shared by the Korean-Chinese poets who are close to North Korea geographically as well as politically. Considered broadly, the poetry in South Korea is no exception. One noteworthy point is that such images as ‘foreign force, butter, jazz, Yankeeism, dealer, and thief’ were most frequently used when the violent oppression by the military government of South Korean was building up to a climax in the mid-1980s.

This paper discusses how ‘image of America’ or ‘poetic perception of America’ displayed in the development of modern Korean poetry has been changed. As the US navy grew steadily in power by organizing ‘the America and Pacific Fleets in 1882, the East India and China Fleet in 1835, and the Asia Fleet in 1865, the US set foot on the Korean peninsula through <gunboat diplomacy> in 1871’. It was through the Pacific War (1941~1945) between Japan and the US that America was first mentioned in Korean modern poems. This was the period during which the Korean people had been being ruled for almost 30 years by the Japanese government, and Korean poems took as their motif people’s ‘pro-Japan, anti-America attitudes’. When Korea became independent from Japan in 1945, the US army occupied South Korea. Their poetic image then can be dubbed ‘occupation force’ or an ‘oppressor’. The literary image of America or Americans that derived from the Korean War (1950~53) was essentially the same as the previous one. In North Korea, where America is defined as an ‘intervener who waged a war in the Korean peninsula’, the image in question amounts to an ‘imperialistic exploiter’ who represents such concepts as ‘Wall Street, dollar, jackal, imperialism, western bitch, cannibal, Yankee, slaughter, and rapist’. This kind of poetic awareness is shared by the Korean-Chinese poets who are close to North Korea geographically as well as politically. Considered broadly, the poetry in South Korea is no exception. One noteworthy point is that such images as ‘foreign force, butter, jazz, Yankeeism, dealer, and thief’ were most frequently used when the violent oppression by the military government of South Korean was building up to a climax in the mid-1980s.

America, Poetic Awareness, Gunboat Diplomacy, Imperalsim, The Korean War, Wall Street