The Wings

The Wings (Korean: 날개) is a short novel written by the Korean author Yi Sang in 1936 and published in magazine Jo-Gwang (조광). It is one of the representative works in psychologism or intellectualism literature from the 1930s. It expresses anxiety, self-consciousness, depression and ego destruction. Synopsis It begins with a famous phrase “Have you ever seen a stuffed genius? (박제가 되어버린 천재’를 아시오?)". This is described in the epigram written inside the rectangle in the introduction. The epigram can be interpreted through Yi sang's 'mirror image'. An epigram can be divided into three parts with the greeting of 'Goodbye'. In addition, 'I' and 'you' appear in epigram. If 'I' is interpreted as Yi Sang himself and 'you' as the reader, it can be seen as suggesting the reader how to read the novel "Wings". There is the phrase; "Block off the 19th century if possible. Dostoyevsky's spirit seems like a waste." This phrase can be interpreted as giving the reader advice to Yi sang, referring to the interpretation above. Yi sang defined the '19th century' as an old thing that did not reach the 20th century, so it should be sealed off, and made 'Dostoyevsky' the representative of the "musty" old era. Contrary to this, he confesses that he is one with Dostoyevsky and possesses a 19th-century soul. The main character 'I' and his wife live in a brothel. ‘I’ is not healthy, has intense self-consciousness and has no sense of reality. He was ‘Wife’s husband' and got his wife by trial and error. After his wife goes out, he goes to her room to smell her cosmetics or burn her toilet paper with a magnifying glass to replace his desire for a wife. He pondered for several days on why his wife's guests gave her money, and concluded that it was a pleasure. He goes out while his wife is gone, wondering what kind of pleasure it is. He wandered aimlessly from street to street until well into the night without spending a penny, losing his reason. When he went out many times like this, he catches a cold. She uses this as an opportunity to give him sleeping pills to keep him from leaving the 'sunless room'.