본고는 『眞珠는 주엇스나』에 나타난 ‘돈-지식-식민성’의 상관관계를 해명하고, 이 작품이 염상섭 소설의 계보 속에서 차지하는 위상을 새롭게 조명해 보고자 한다. 경성제대 예과생 효범과 신문기자 영복을 중심으로 벌어지는 正義에 관한 서사는, 담론 생산지로서의 대학과 언론이 돈에 의해 압도되는 식민지 조선의 현실을 잘 드러내고 있다. 또한 이 작품에서 주목할 것은, 효범과 영복의 눈부신 저항에도 불구하고 그에 따른 성과가 거의 없다는 사실이다. 이 작품을 쓰면서 염상섭 스스로 발견했던 것은 바로 이러한 식민지적 아포리아, 즉 정의 실현의 불가능성이라는 문제였다. 바로 이 문제를 타개하기 위해 정의를 발화하고 실천하는 자로서의 사회주의자를 새롭게 등장시킴으로써 식민지 조선에서의 저항(불)가능성이라는 문제를 정면으로 돌파하고자 했다. 이는 저항의 不能地로서의 식민지 조선을 저항 가능한 공간으로 轉化시킬 수 있는 서사를 위해 염상섭이 제출했던 서사 문법에 해당한다.

This study aims to identify correlation among “money-knowledge- coloniality” in Yeom Sang-seop’s novel Though Gave the Pearl and analyze rebellious mechanism of colonial power, which Mr. Yeom intended to represent. Plus, by comparing and reviewing narrative contexts in the novel along with his next works, the study will grasp background for the need to call “socialists” as a player for realizing “justice” in his works after Though Gave the Pearl. As G. Simmel once argued, money is a medium not only for exchange but also for granting an order and hierarchy. Though Gave the Pearl describes how money makes a hierarchy from human relationships in the colonized Joseon from Simmel’s perspective. This novel depicts a conflict from Hyo-beom, a preparatory course student at Keijo Imperial University, and Jin Hyeong-seok, his brother-in law and vicious pro-Japanese lawyer who supports his tuition. In fact, characters from Keijo Imperial University frequently appear in Yeom Sang-seop’s works such as Mad Fury or Line of Discontinuity; this signifies that the author had a sensitive viewpoint for social position of the university. In this context, this thesis will analyze the narrative by a student at Keijo Imperial University, Hyo-beom, and study how Mr. Yeom’s awareness of the university overlaps with contemporary elite’s recognition. Further, rebellious narratives by Shin Yeong-bok, a newspaper reporter, who plays a role as a local narrator, will be read. By analyzing narratives by Hyo-beom and Yeong-bok, the study will identify reality of colonial Joseon where colleges and media as a forum of producing discourse are overwhelmed by money, and the author’s perspective to the reality. Finally, with focusing on the fact that there were nearly no results from resistance despite brilliant resistant efforts by two characters, the thesis aims to study the author’s narrative strategy to overcome aporia of being impossible to realize “justice” in the colonized Joseon. In other Yeom Sang-seop’s works, which were published after Though Gave the Pearl, such as Unsettled or Mad Fury, activists from Keijo Imperial University or “socialists” appear as people who ignite and carry out justice; this is a narrative grammar, which was designed by Yeom Sang-seop, to ensure a narrative to realize “justice” without any help from religious belief and transform the colonized Joseon, which was a barren land where anyone cannot resist, into a place for rehabilitation.