earticle

한국어

This paper compares the aspects of reproducing women’s body through the narrative of tuberculosis found in Kang Kyung-ae’s 『Human Problems』 and Zhang Ailing’s ｢Flowers Wither｣. Through the comparison, this study has gained the findings as follows. First, the two novels both describe the process from the onset of tuberculosis to death plausibly, and their death was particularly attributed to the poor environment for survival. Second, the second reason of their death is that they failed to be the subject of their feelings and just readily complied with the external hierarchy represented as male power. While they remained silent in the face of violence and contradictions in reality either large or small, their body existed indicating various signs as part of the world. Third, while Kang Kyung-ae actively intervenes with the consciousness revolution believing that women can be liberated through the class struggle, Zhang Ailing reveals her skepticism about humanity with cold-hearted contemplation. Kang Kyung-ae, a daughter of a tenant farmer, suffered from poverty from her childhood, and her experience of poverty set the backdrop for creating a female character like Seonbi from the lower class. On the other hand, Zhang Ailing had a grandfather who was a noted subject in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of her origin, she created a ruined aristocratic woman in her novel. Even though they are from different origins, they both fail to escape from the patriarchy and reach death venting their suppressed feelings as some kind of painful disease on their body. The tragic ending of their lives has no difference. In some ways, a woman of noble birth lives more desperately for not being able to be freed from even the fence of the family, and at this point, Zhang Ailing’ cynical gaze gets born. In the era of replacement between the old and the new, many female intellects in Korea and China insisted on women’s consciousness and declared to be new-generation women; however, in reality, women’s liberation or gender equality was nothing more than empty discourse. Penetrating through the very reality, Kang Kyung-ae and Zhang Ailing’s novels reproduce the language of a woman's body into the literary field of tuberculosis narrative.