| The works that tells the truth about a writer are not the autobiographies but the works of fiction. In the case of Chang-sup Sohn, a Korean writer, A Comic Creature of God：A Self-portrait, is a crucial work which not only helps understanding of his earlier works but also reveals his motive for writing. Though Scribbling Gangsters is also regarded by some critics as an autobiographical work, A Comic Creature of God seems to be more important in understanding the writer himself as it deals with the life of the hero more thoroughly, seriously and consistently. The life of the hero corresponds more closely to that of the writer. Also, the tragedy Physical Soul, which is the only other novel Sohn published in the same year as A Comic Creature of God, hints at the writer’s psychological turmoil in writing this autobiographical novel and remembering and going back through his painful past experiences.
The writing of A Comic Creature of God seems to have exhausted Sohn’s creative energy, and his later works fall short of the literary talent shown in earlier works. The Couple, published one year after A Comic Creature of God, deals with the ‘voyeurism’ of a husband toward his wife, which corresponds to the ‘primal scene’ experience of the hero S in A Comic Creature of God. However, this husband deals with his libido more maturely than S. In Fear, the father tries to save his gangster son but ends up forced to join the violent gang himself. Here the writer takes the viewpoint of society which does not approve of antisocial gangs. This objectivity is radically different from the subjective viewpoint of S in A Comic Creature of God, who represented himself and was an antisocial person. A Eunuch and Long Life in History also show a chastened S, who consoles himself and takes up his responsibilities in life.
S, the hero of A Comic Creature of God, has unconscious anger toward his mother. But his wife plays the role of “a new mother” who heals his psychological trauma from the other. S’s creativity as a famous novelist, despite his psychological traumas, seems to stem from his relationship with his “new mother”, his loving wife. |
