초록/요약

This study aims to re-signify the so-called “Choi Seo Hae tendency” in literature, which has only been addressed in existing research in the dimension of realism based on class conflict or resistance. This study therefore pays attention to the melodramatic characteristics shown in Choi’s novels. Melodramatic attributes have generally been played down as mere tear jerkers or strategies for popularity: centering on intense pathos or excessive emotion. In novels by Choi Seo Hae, however, violence demonstrates the positive aspects of melodramatic characteristics through the performativity of romantic emotion. That is, elements of “excess” criticised as a waste of emotion lead to leaps of strength (ch. 2), elements of “coincidence” criticised as far-fetched allow for the equality of conflicting elements (ch. 3), and “punishing evil” re-emphasizes moral justice by visualizing the obscured morality of encouraging good and punishing evil (ch. 4). Therefore, in novels by Choi Seo Hae, melodramatic characteristics show a positive and active “navigation of emotion.” This is because the ultimate objective of Choi’s novels is to stress the complex self rather than the immature self, the accumulation of emotion rather than the consumption of emotion, and the inevitability of violence rather than the reaction to it.