정비석 소설에 드러난 아메리카니즘에 대한 인식과 변화 양상 - 「신박사와 이혼」과 『자유부인』을 중심으로-

Dr. Shin and Divorce: A Fable for Adults is a newly discovered Jeong Bi-seok novel, which was published in the first issue of the police magazine, Railway Police, in November 1951. Dr. Shin and Divorce satirizes the situation in which an intelligent man who could not give up on old-fashioned thinking pretended to be democratic. While the ideology of gender equality was introduced into South Korean society by riding on the wind of Americanism, for intelligent men like Dr. Shin, only their unlimited freedom was important, and they were passive about women’s liberation. The novel critically depicts the abominations of male intellectuals who plausibly argued for the new ideology of American freedom and equality when women’s true liberation had not yet arrived. The image of social chaos brought about by Americanism continues in Madame Free. The negative and cloudy image of Americanism is reinforced, and the negative foreign culture penetrates the home, which should be the last bastion. However, as the novel confronts public criticism and social demands head-on, Jeong Bi-seok abandons his creative intentions and turns the direction of his work to the wants of the public. As the implementers of negative foreign culture concentrate on women, Oh Seon-yeong, a free woman who goes out on the streets with her clumsy free thoughts, becomes the embodiment of corruption and indulgence. The patriarch Jang Tae-yeon, who stands firm amid a turbulent world, is located in the family, and his morality and intelligence eventually save Oh Seon-young and make her return to the family. In this way, Dr. Shin and Divorce and Madame Free by Jeong Bi-seok are excellent examples of works that contain complex emotions and changes such as envy, imitation, exclusion, and recognition of Americanism from the liberation period to the post-war period of national reconstruction.