근대 동아시아 탐정소설과 청년 탐정의 탄생

초록

The figures of the 'Youth' and the 'Detective' were imaged as modern subjects of the nation-state and presented as models of scientific and rational thinking for the formation of such subjects. However, the specific historical contexts faced by East Asian countries led authors to portray detectives not as simple, flat characters, but as three-dimensional and multifaceted figures. Consequently, the 'youth detectives' appearing in Korea, China, and Japan exhibit the rational, scientific, and empirical attitudes characteristic of detectives, while simultaneously appearing as dualistic and complex individuals who reflect the unique atmosphere and circumstances of their respective eras and societies. The period when the creation of detective fiction flourished in East Asia was the 1920s and 30s. Authors such as Edogawa Ranpo in Japan, Lu Dan’an in China, and Chae Man-sik and Kim Nae-seong in colonial Korea introduced 'youth detective' characters with dualistic and complex personalities. For them, detective work still embodied modern ideologies based on science and reason; however, their motivations revealed elements that violated or transcended the 'interpellation' (calling) of the state. Looking at the distinctiveness of each country, these elements manifested as psychologies of boredom and anxiety in Ranpo’s works, playfulness and routinization in Lu Dan’an’s, and lethargy and self-destructive self-disintegration in the novels of Chae Man-sik and Kim Nae-seong.

키워드