Nous, les Kim

Histoires d'enfants et de mères dans les angles morts de notre société

L'ouvrage-titre, 「nous, Kim」, est un roman que l'auteur a conçu en rencontrant des amis adoptés belges, et parle de la vie et des blessures vécues par les adoptés en tant que minorité, et de la guérison par la solidarité entre eux. 「Mothers」 et 「Woman on the Beach」 traitent également de la question de l'adoption et montrent des émotions complexes et subtiles entourant la relation brisée. 「Gloria」, qui reconstitue une histoire vraie qui s'est déroulée en Floride, aux États-Unis, et 「The Eleventh Child」, qui met en scène une grand-mère élevant l'enfant de son petit-fils, dépeignent des histoires sur les femmes et la société, l'anxiété et la solitude, la vie et la souffrance, et la diaspora .

Ce livre tire la sonnette d'alarme contre les conventions sociales lourdement entachées de pouvoir masculin et de familisme.

Us, Kim

This novel collection was written by Hwang Eundeok, who won the 10th Busan Writer's Award and the 17th Busan Novel Literary Award. With her previous work, Korean Language Courses, ​she told stories about adoption, immigration and minorities, garnering her much interest within the Korean literary circle. Unlike her previous work, which focused on the wounds of adoption, in this collection she highlights social structures and masculine power as well as the activity and engagement among individuals concerned.

This book, Us, Kim, is a collection of seven stories, and four of them deal the issue of adoption. Along with the title piece, Mothers and the Lady of the Beach face the adoption issues directly, where readers can meet stories of complex emotions around disconnected relationships. The themes of her works center on women and society, anxiety and loneliness and life and pain. Gloria was inspired by the real incident that took place in Florida in the U.S. in 2006. The 11th Child ​is the story of Deoksoon who attempts to collect the shards of a scattered family. Anxiety and Soul offers a glimpse of the insecure social position and incomplete relationships that lay behind the loneliness of the modern people. Hospitality is the painful confession of a young one who lived through a life of difficulties.

The title piece, Us, Kim is a story about Kim, who was adopted by a Belgium family, goes on a journey to find her mother and meets many people. The 23 individuals she meets from the Belgium Korean Adoption Society live with their own lives and cultures. Their memory of being thrown away does not place them under depression. During the 1970s, when Korean society achieved the remarkable economic development called the Miracle on the Han River, adoptees are well aware that their existence was the most cumbersome thing for Korean society. This is where readers must pay attention. Rather than being permanently scarred by the fact they were thrown away, they understand the circumstances of their real parents and move on to build up their own narratives, beyond the branding of being an adopted child.

In fact, Hwang Eundeok began developing ideas for Us, Kim through meetings with her Belgium friends who were adopted. Like in the story, she was able to see the scars of adoptees while helping them to look for their "real parent." This is a story about the "Kims" who are scattered throughout the world and the single mothers who had to send them away. Why did they have the stigmas of adoptee and single mother engraved on their hearts?

사회의 사각지대에 놓인 아이와 엄마들의 이야기

표제작 「우리들, 킴」은 저자가 벨기에 입양인 친구들을 만나면서 구상한 소설로, 입양인들이 겪는 소수자로서의 삶과 상처, 그리고 그들 간의 연대를 통한 치유를 말한다. 「엄마들」, 「해변의 여인」 등에서도 입양 문제를 다루며 끊어진 관계를 둘러싼 복잡 미묘한 감정들을 보여준다. 미국 플로리다 주에서 발생한 실화를 재구성한 「글로리아」, 손자의 아이를 키우게 된 할머니가 등장하는 「열한 번째 아이」 등은 여성과 사회, 불안과 고독, 삶과 고통, 디아스포라에 대한 이야기를 그려낸다. 책은 남성권력과 가족주의로 짙게 물든 사회적 통념에 경종을 울린다.