earticle

영어

This paper examines Kim Dongri’s early works to track down his literary path that made ‘salvation’ one of critical topics of his literature. Kim’s works describe the limitation of violent modern system that disapproves salvation in principle, and seek out alternate possibilities. Thus, they can be can be interpreted as a problematic text that attempt to supersede crisis in secular life. In this context, Kim Dongri is an author who has looked for the possibility of salvation by religious imagination, the Buddhist imagination in particular. Kim’s literature does not solely deal with the Buddhist imagination but incorporates religious imaginations of Shamanism and Christianity. It is what makes his literature special in the history of Korean literature. Yet this paper argues that it is important to pay attention to the Buddhist imagination when it comes to the theme of salvation, and it provides a ground to study how his literary works are connected to the Buddhist imagination.