the Rhetoric of Yi-Sang(or Lee Sang)'s Poetry

The Rhetoric of Modernism and Postmodernism

-A Study on The Literature of Yi Sang(or Lee Sang)

 

Park, Hyun-soo

  Professor, Ph D.

Kyungpook National University

Department of Korean Language and Literature

 

 

 

 

<ABSTRACT>

A Study on the Rhetoric of Yi-Sang's Poetry

                                                      Park, Hyun-Soo

  This dissertation is aimed at examining the rhetorical characteristics and patterns in Yi-Sang's poetry. Yi-Sang's poetry has double dimensional layers - one is modernism, the other avant garde or postmodernism - as being shown in the comparison of two mirror poems in ‘Crow's eye view(오감도)’(‘Poem No.15’ and ‘Poem No.8’). It can be said that the first comes from the acceptance of modernity or modern civilization while the second from negating and overcoming them. Taking notice of the duality of those layers and from the rhetorical viewpoint to make it possible to grasp the essential nature of language, this paper examined it with two dividing parts i.e. modern and postmodern rhetoric.

  Modern rhetoric is on the basis of modernity, trust of reason and order consciousness. This rhetoric, with logocentrism in its core, emphasizing an order, totality, singularity is represented by metaphor and synecdoche. The major items of modern rhetoric in Yi-Sang's poetry are largely as follows. (1) Abstraction derived from the characteristic of acknowledging the hierarchy structure and the order of synecdoche. (2) Artificiality based on belief in intellect and intellectual manipulation in the favor of necessity and essence. (3) The principle of substitution as a rhetorical representation of modernist singularity.

  Whereas, postmodern rhetoric begins with the fundamental scepticism about reason. This rhetoric being characteristic of such as metonymy, allegory and irony etc. is one which refuses, on the basis of fundamental scepticism and negation about logocentrism, the mystic vision of totality or completeness. The postmodern rhetoric in Yi-Sang's poems is observed in (1) the  description  of 'simulacre' world fundamentally defying the supposition of totality and a priori principle or essence (2) the way of using authentic precedents which shows the new recognition of creativity and (3) the concept of subject as a trace which contains the doubt on the identity of subject.

  In order to approach the ideal character derived from the first feature of modern rhetoric, i.e. the acknowledgement of order and hierarchy structure, the principle and influence of 'a roof garden' uncovering the vital phase of modernity was brought into consideration in this paper. 'A roof garden' starts with the principle of the extreme abstraction which appears in the formal logic poems such as 'Crow's eye view, poem No.1(오감도 시제1호)', 'Poem No.2(시제2호)'.

  In the next step, the artificiality of Yi-Sang's poetry was dealt with concerning the issue of necessity and essence in modern rhetoric. Artificiality means the manufactural which takes a work an intentional and artificial output. Therefore it is necessarily concerned with the issue of architectural view.   Accordingly, objective and methodology-centered poems, i.e. the poems concentrating upon the fragmentary image full of wit come to the limelight. When this trend reaches its peak, even immature form is, as a form, accepted in the poem. The compressive typical example of this would be ‘a unfinished script mode(미정고 양식)’ experimented by Yi-Sang.

  In the next step, the mechanical substitution concerned with the instrumental character of modern reason was explained by the principle of substitution which is an another characteristic of modern rhetoric. It is easily found in his poem 'Memorandum about line 4(선에 관한 각서 4)'. This principle in Yi-Sang's poems remains on the equi-locus with a kind of learning practice. The practical application of words and figures in mathematics, geometry, science and medicine which are so abundant as to make a list in his poems can be evaluated as the literary substitution of words acquired by learning or reading. The intertextuality between his poetry and Jules Renard's ?Histoires Naturelles? is a good case to check the principle of substitution in a concrete way.

  The postmodern rhetoric begins with the fundamental skepticism about reason and the frustration of logocentrism gives birth to the negation of substance or essence. This negation moves toward the visualization of simulacre world. The mirror with both sides closed in 'Ogamdo poem the 8th' reflects the self-augmenting simulacre world per se no matter what the real is. This world is not only a world which is entirely free from the indication-relation dependent upon the principal and reality but also a world in which models produce models. This aspect is also found in his poem 'cliff(절벽)'. These poems are precious works because they prove simultaneously the spiritual orientation and linguistic phase in the postmodern rhetoric.

  Secondly, postmodern rhetoric in Yi-Sang's poetry is related to the issue of newness(nouveauté). Connecting newness to the rediscovery of past in the postmodern discourse was regarded attentively in this paper. It is fairly logical conclusion for Yi-Sang to choose the borrowing way of authentic precedents from the classics of the east as a important method of postmodern rhetoric.

  Finally, the issue of multi-subject was examined. Yi-Sang's well-known mention('I am only just a my trace') can be read as the death of subject in the postmodern context. This multi-subject is the origin of metonymical disruption and at the same time has the linkage to the undecidability of postmodernity. The endlessly repeated ｅxpressions(the ｅxpressions of <l' enchaînement infini>) in Yi-Sang's poems which are very closely related to the rhetorics of metonymy can be interpreted as an intentional ｅxpression to uncover the deferment of definite meaning and the situation of subject deconstruction: it is can be safely said that they are beyond the simple language play.

Keyword: modern rhetoric, postmodern rhetoric, synecdochical hierarchy, roof garden, newness, a unfinished script mode, substitution, simulacre.