이찬은 당시 우리 시문학의 양상을 다양하게 보여 주는 시인으로, 그의 이름 변화는 역사의 흐름만큼 그의 시 역시 다변했음을 짐작하게 한다. 일제강점기에는 ‘李燦’이라는 한자 이름으로, 1940년 희곡을 발표했을 당시에는 ‘아오바 가오리(靑葉薰)’라는 창씨명으로, 1945년 월북한 뒤생을 마감한 1974년까지는 혁명시인 ‘리찬’으로 활동하였다. 카프의 전통을 이어받은 이찬의 문학은 주체문예론이 대두되기 이전 북한 詩史에서 빠질 수 없는 한 부분으로 자리하고 있다. 이 글은 역사 흐름에 따른 이념적 행보를 형상화한 이찬의 시세계를 통하여 해방 전후 시문학의 양상을 살펴보는데 주안점을 두었다. 아울러 전향과 친일이 미친 영향과 함께 해방 전후 시문학의 역사적 측면을 이찬의 시에서 살펴보았다. 1920년대 후반에 등장하여 활발히 창작활동을 하였던 이찬은 현재 북한문학사에서 높은 평가를 받고 있다. 관념에 치우쳐 구체적 현실인식을 드러내지는 못했지만, 능동적이며 적극적인 결단이 보였던 ‘李燦’의 프로시는 민족주의운동의 흐름과 일치하였다. ‘민족주의적 좌파 이데 올로기’에서 ‘비관적 감상주의’, ‘도피적 낭만주의’와 ‘모더니즘적인 취향’을 거쳐, ‘친일문학으로 갑작스레 전향’하였으나 ‘해방 후 즉시 좌익문학단체에 가입’함으로써 그의 이념적 행보는 명확해졌다. 이찬의 시는 프로시, 옥중시, 낭만시, 모더니즘시, 친일시, 북한 혁명시 등 해방 전후 우리 문학의 첨예한 변화를 모두 보여주었다. 이찬이 다양한 이름으로 불렸던 만큼 그의 시는 식민지 역사의 희생양으로 위태로웠다. 시 속 대상들 역시 자신의 처지 또는 심리적 정황에 맞게 변화된 모습으로 표현되었다. 그리움과 안타까움의 대상이었던 여인을 애달프게 부르며 시 속에 등장시켰고, 이들은 곧 그리움으로 정화되었다. 긴 방황 속에서 이찬의 시정신은 자신의 고향 ‘북방’에서 종착역을 찾아내었다. ‘북방의 봄’은 그가 그토록 안타까워하던 ‘여인’이었고, 젊은 날찾고자 다짐했던 ‘유토피아’였으며, 민족의 ‘잃어버린 花園’이었다. 그리고 이제 우리는 ‘이찬’의 이름으로 해방 전후 우리 시문학의 양상을 함께 살필 수 있게 되었다.

Lee Chan is a poet who reveals various aspects of his contemporary Korean poetry literature, and his changing name implies that his poetry went through ongoing variations like a stream of modern Korean history. In the period of Japanese imperialism, he acted as poet in his personal name comprising Chinese characters (‘李燦’), but was compelled to adopt a Japanese name called ‘Aoba Gaori (靑葉薰)’ when publishing his drama in 1940, and acted in a Korean name called ‘Lee Chan’ as revolutionary poet from the migration to North Korea in 1945 till the end of his life in 1974. In succession to a tradition of the Korea Artista Proleta Federatio (KAPF), the literature world of Lee Chan takes an indispensable part of North Korea`s history before the rise of discourses about independent art and literature of Korea. This paper focused upon the poetic world of Lee Chan who sought to embody his ideological progress in step with historical flow, so that it could investigate various aspects of Korean poetry literature before and after the 1945 Liberation of Korea. In addition, this study could discuss potential effects of Lee`s ideological conversion and pro-Japanese activities on his poetry, and address his poetry to identify any historical aspects of his poetry literature before and after the 1945 Liberation of Korea. Lee Chan, a modern Korean poet who appeared in the late 1920`s and dedicated himself positively to literary creation activities, is now highly evaluated in the history of North Korean literature. Despite ideal tendency and failure to reveal any concrete minds of reality, the proletarian poems of Lee Chan (‘李燦’) who demonstrated proactive and positive determination to find something meaningful for his fatherland were consistent with a mainstream of his contemporary nationalist campaigns. He intensively revealed his critical minds about social class and national liberation along with so-called `Proletarian Literature Group` poets who acted from late 1920`s to 1930`s. He went through a series of ideological careers such as `nationalistic leftist ideology`, `pessimistic sentimentalism`, `evasive romanticism` and `modernistic orientation` before `abruptly converting to pro-Japanese literature.` However, he `re-joined leftist literature group immediately after the national liberation`, which demonstrated his ideological progress again. As Lee Chan was named variously in his lifetime, his poetry was vulnerable as a scapegoat to colonial history. Targets of his poetry were also expressed as changed beings in a good step with his own circumstances or psychological situations. Particularly, Lee Chan created a fictional lady in his poetry, calling lamentably her (as a target of yearning and sadness). And this sentiment was immediately refined and cleansed into an attachment. Despite long ways of wandering, Lee Chan`s poetic spirit ended up with finding a final destination in `northern region` as his hometown. As for Lee, `the Spring of Northern Region` meant `the very woman` he called lamentably, `a Utopian world` he determined to find out in his young days, and `the lost flower garden` of Korean nation. Thus, we can discuss and find out various aspects of modern Korean poetry literature in the name of `Lee Chan` before and after the 1945 Liberation of Korea.