1930년의 간도 5ㆍ30 사건 관련자의 삶을 소재로 한 강경애의 단편소설 「어둠」은 임순득의 여성주의 평론을 통해 작품의 의의가 훨씬 더 분명하게 드러난다. 온갖 검열을 뚫고 1930년대 간도에서 진행된 항일무장투쟁을 한반도의 독자에게 전하고자 노력한 작가 강경애의 「어둠」은 그런 항일운동가가 죽고 남은 가족도 외롭고 적적함에 빠진, 강경애의 작가생활의 마지막을 보여 주는 작품이다. 가난이든 양심이든 인물을 벼랑 끝까지 밀고 가는 작가의 냉정함 혹은 문제 추구의 성실함은 이 시기 어느 작가도 따르지 못하는 것이다. 그리고 그 성실한 작가가 부딪힌 현실에 대한 절망감과 건강의 악화, 이것 때문에 강경애는 더는 소설을 쓰지 못하게 된 것으로 보인다. 그런데 강경애의 「어둠」에 대해 임순득은 남성작가도 감히 다루지 못하고 있는 정치적 사건을 여성작가인 강경애가 소설로 썼다는 점을 높이 평가하면서도 강경애 역시 여성에 대한 통념을 받아들여 여성인물을 너무 나약한 존재로 그린 것에 대해 비판을 하였다. 두 사람은 일제 시대에 사회주의적 지향을 가졌던 매우 드문 여성작가로서, 여성인물을 주인공으로 하거나 여성의 생활을 주된 소재로 삼음으로써 공론의 장에 나오기 어려운 여성의 목소리를 대변하면서도 여성문학의 지향점에 대해서는 조금 다른 입장을 취했다. 둘 다 여학교 시절, 기독교 계통 학교의 교육 방침에 반대하는 동맹휴학 사건과 관련하여 퇴학당했으며 사회주의적 지향을 가지고 있었다는 점에서 일제 시대 어느 여성 작가들보다 서로 가까운 자리에 있었지만, 가족사항이나 여학교에서의 경험 등에서 강경애는 가난했고 임순득은 유복했으며, 강경애는 여학교 시절을 외롭게 보낸 반면, 임순득은 여성활동가 집단을 만날 수 있었다. 이러한 차이점 때문에 강경애와 임순득은 작품세계의 지향점에서도 차이가 생겼다. 1930년대 초ㆍ중반, 남성들이 반만항일투쟁에 참가하면서, 남겨진 가족의 생계를 그 아내들이 짊어져야 했던 간도 지방의 현실 속에서 강경애는 ‘계급적 자의식’ 에 투철했고 하층민들의 삶 속에서 가족의 유지에 커다란 가치를 두었다. 반면 임순득은 1930년대 중ㆍ후반 서울 중심의 반제노동운동에 단신으로 참여했던 여성 활동가 집단을 배경으로 좀더 민족적이고 ‘여성적인 자의식’을 분명히 드러내고 있다. 이렇게 강경애가 멈춰 선 자리에서 또 한 사람의 여성작가 임순득이 출발하고 있음을 「어둠」을 둘러싼 논의가 보여 준다.
A short story that depicts the lives of those who were involved in the Jiandao [Korean: Kando] Incident of May 30. 1930, Kang Kyong-ae’s “Darkness [odum]” beomes far more significant when it is viewed through the feminist critique of Im Sun-duk. Kang was a writer who, despite all Japanese censorship, strived to inform her compatriots on the Korean Peninsula of the armed anti-Japanese independence movement that was engaged in Jiandao in the 1930’s “Darkness” recounts the loneliness of a family after the death of its head, who had been an anti-Japanese activist. As such, the short story provides a window on Kang’s last years as a writer. She cool-headedly an, tenaciously pursued the ideas in her works, be they poverty or conscience; such meticulousness would not have been surpassed by any contempoary author. being a writer of such integrity. Kang probably could not continue to write in the face of an insurmountable reality and failing health. As women writers who were active during the colonial era and had socialist leanings. Kang and Im were rare. They represented the voices of women. which otherwise could not be heard in the public arena, by making women and their lives the main concerns of their works. Despite such similarities, however, these two writers had slightly different standpoints regarding women’s literature. Regarding Kang’s “Darkness”, Im highly esteemed the fact that a woman writer had turned into fiction a political incident that even contemporary male authors did not dare to dddress. Nonetheless, Im was critical of what she perceived as Kgnag’s acceptance of received views on women and depiction of women as weak. An examination of the two women’s lives reveals a greater similarity than can be found between any two women writers who were active during the colonial era. As students at Christian schools, both were expelled for having taken part in a students’ strike organized in protest against educational policies and had socialist leanings. In their personal upbringing, however, these writers were removed from each other. Because Kang lost her father at a very early age and grew up in utter destitution, the experience of indigence later became an important subject matter of her works. As a result, she came to be seen as a writer who spoke out for the inner lives of the impoverished lower classes. On the other hand, Im was born and raised in a considerably affluent family and even studied in Japan. Consequently, her works dating from before the Liberation portray intellectual and contemplative women instead of extreme poveverty. In addition, after expulsion from school, Kang seems to have undergone a period of wandering and personal soul searching without many ties to her peers. On the contrary, Im seems to have continued to maintain contact with the women activists whom she had met during her school days. Owing to such differences in their personal backgrounds, Kang and Im show disparate orientations in their works In the early and mid-1930’s, Korean wives living in Jiandao had to be the breadwinners because their husbands had left home to take part in armed independence movement against Manchukuo and Japan. Faced with such reality, Kang was thoroughgoing in her “class consciousness” and found great value in the maintenance of families among the lower classes Im on the other hand, clearly exhibited a more nationalistic and “feminine” self-consciousness, with the group of women activists who participated in the anti-imperialistic labor movement of Seoul in the mid-to late 1930’s as the backdrop. It is precisely the point at which Kang stopped that we meet, Im another woman writer.