The Popular Novels of Colonial Chosun and the Fantasy of ‘Namyang’, Focused on <i>The Golden Cave</i>

JUNG, Hyeyoung

doi:2021.13.1.23

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 13(1); 2021 > Article

Special Issue

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2021;13(1): 23-37.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2021.13.1.23

The Popular Novels of Colonial Chosun and the Fantasy of ‘Namyang’, Focused on The Golden Cave

Hyeyoung JUNG

Visiting professor of General Education Department Kyungpook National University

植民地朝鮮の大衆小説と｢南洋｣という幻想

鄭惠英

慶北大学校教育革新本部招聘教授。韓国近代文学専攻。

Correspondence Hyeyoung JUNG ,Email: jhy2109@hanmail.net

Published online: 30 December 2021.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

The term “Namyang Archipelago” has been forgotten in Korea. Although the Namyang Islands were imbricated in the lives of Koreans during the colonial period, few Koreans know the term nowadays. During the colonial period, “Namyang Fever” was prevalent in Chosun. Namyang was thought of as an idealized land, but its natives were described as uncivilized barbarians. Such contradictory views are found in Kim Nae-sung’s adventure novel for boys The Golden Cave, published in 1937. This study examines the meaning of the obsession with Namyang in colonial Chosun, concentrating in particular on this novel. When the novel was published in 1937, Chosun was undergoing a mania for gold and a veritable gold rush. During this period, Kim Nae-seong was drawing readers’ attention to the Namyang Islands by describing them as the place where The Golden Cave is located. It was not that Kim Nae-seong wanted to encourage people to migrate to the Namyang Archipelago out of self-interest. All the children who go on adventures in the novel try to use the gold they have found in the public interest, through initiatives such as building an orphanage. They are aiming for a life that abandons the primacy of “one’s desire,” “one’s success,” and “one’s joy”, and think only of the public interest. This form of life meant 殉忠, “giving one’s life for the country,” which the Japanese Empire required of colonial Koreans during this period.

Keywords: Kim Nae-sung, The Golden Cave, Namyang Archiplago, Gold Rush, Adventure Novel

キ―ワ―ド: 金來成, 黄金窟, 南洋諸島, 黄金狂, 冒険小説