KJC Korea
Journal Central

This article is based on the premise that the novel is a genre that presents a literary scene of a particular situation in human life, and it is a literary scene of collective representation that is closely linked to literary imagination. Among the many past lives that old novel remembers and records in the form of stories, this article focuses on the stories of children of the Joseon Dynasty, ‘child narrative’. To this end, I first confirmed that old novel considered the age of 15 as child, called ‘dong-hae(童孩)’, and viewed it as a “young and ignorant child” through the <Changseongamuirok>, and saw that it coincided with the age of children generally used in Joseon society. Next, I looked at the literary scenes of child narrative for <Wanwolhoe- maengyeon>. The main event of the child narrative is separation from the family, which is divided into ‘kidnapping and abandonment’ and ‘floating and begging’. The scenes of ‘Child narrative’ include some of the public's narrative memories and reactions about children's lives at that time, that is, the metaphor of children's reality. The actual decrees and historical records confirmed that the issue of child abandonment and begging in the late Joseon Dynasty was a major social issue. The main scenes of child narratives depicted in the novels are literary appropriations of ‘children's abandonment and begging’ which occur repeatedly in Joseon society.

This study focuses on the inversion of a boy appearing in the story of the Dueoksin in 『Chunyerok』. In the tale, the child is a new child in that he is a reversal with formidable destructive power, compared to a child who has unexpected problem-solving power or who is unilaterally sacrificed by parents or adults in many of the stories. The immature and imperfect, and shabby image of children made the yangban people treat them as an object of neglect and exclusion, which made people express their immorality extremely. The process of amplifying violence by those who are trying to drive the boy out paradoxically provides an opportunity to identify himself as a ghost with a strange power. However, the ruthless violence of people was not forgiven, resulting in a serious disaster of the death of all the members of the group. The cause of the conflict that played an important role in this process was the lack of communication between people and the child, which was already inherent in the property of Dueoksin of impersonal ghost. The aspect of Dueoksin that can not be communicated and can not be understood stimulated the fundamental fear of people, but eventually revealed ruthless violence against the socially weak, which resulted in the causal ending of infectious disease. As such, the story of the Dueoksin shows the recognition system of the time to understand disease as a result of human morality.

This paper investigates the attributes and the meaning of 'Madame Seok' who is a representative female character of <Sohyunsungrok>. She shows a desirable image of woman, which is similar but different from images of other women in <Sohyunsungrok> and desirable images of women in other full-length novels. She has talents such as writing poems well, is evaluated as many times prettier than others, and gives teaching sternly but warmly. She is very filial to her parents and conforms to patriarchal ideology and traditional family ethics, but she states her opinion confidently at the same time. She is also thought to the one who concretely shows how a woman should behave herself in family relationships of the time, by showing diverse sides as a wife, mother, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and the second wife. In addition, the significance of the figuration of 'Madame Seok' is that she is not a stereotyped and submissive woman, but she confidently voices her thoughts, shows aspects of a dignified and warm adult, and remains aloof from rivalry with other wives for her husband’s love.

This paper explores how the wars and the narrativization of their memories correlate to the changes in 17th-century novels. Writings that remember and record war usually take the form of retrospection. In order to retrospect war in the past, we have to need two egos: the past self and the present self. The retrospection is the literary device in a narrative, in which a past event is narrated at a point later than its chronological order in a story. I think that the great change in 17th-century novels is closely related to the birth of a sense of the position in which the whole story can be viewed outside the narrative. In this paper, I named such a position ‘the perspective of bird's eye view’. The perspective of bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as if the observer were a bird. I have referred to time reversal causality and the experience of simultaneity as a change in the history of 17th-century novels that relates to the perspective of bird's eye view. Time reversal causality is a causal relationship created in an ex post and retrospective way of discovering the cause of the present state in the past. Time reversal causality is very similar to the process of creating a narrative to secure one's legitimacy when remembering and recording the war. It is the process of retroactively creating causality between events for the final purpose of the narrative. Simultaneity arises from experiencing the homogeneous and empty time flowing between two events in different places. Two events which happened simultaneously and even in separate places can link the people involved in those events by this precise simultaneity, and those people share a consciousness of a shared temporal dimension in which they co-exist. The perspective of bird's eye view is found in both narratives that remember the war and 17th-century novels, and this sense of the position in which the whole story can be viewed outside the narrative was the important cause of changes in the 17th-century novels.

One of the early hero novels, <Jang Baek Jeon> is a work of which its main character challenges for the emperor but fails it on the period of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty. This study’s main idea is Jang Baek’s strong relationship orientation. He experiences internal crises after the separation from his family, forming his identity with ascetic and assistants. But he still shows deviation from his social identity. To him, it does not contradict self-realization by getting emperor’s position and reunion of family. <Jang Baek Jeon> has two axes which are the heroism in the middle of the turbulent age, and family orientation. On the two axes, it is the achievement of this work interweaving desire of fame and family affection closely by Jang Baek who has strong relationship orientation.

This study saw the character defense narration shown on the conspiracy in <Three Generations Story of Cho-Family[曺氏三代錄]> as a device that overcomes the accidentality of the narrative and thought it might be related to the <The Book of Changes[周易]> that presupposes the unpredictability of life and the imperfection of choice. In doing so, I wanted to see the accidental narrative of the <Three Generations Story of Cho-Family> as a device that does not necessarily lack of causality, but rather shows realistic aspects of real life and focuses on the inner psychology of the character. On the other hand, the character defense narration consists of three elements: "the ability to knowing the springs[ji, 幾微]" or "the act of grasping the springs", "the factor influencing a character's judgment" and "the act of judgement". And in some cases, some parts appear stronger or weaker. Rather than paying attention to the negative consequences of the character's judgment, the defense narrative highlights the perception[知鑑] of the character or the accidental and compelling factors that the character cannot control. This reveals personal and realistic voice advocating the fact that human choices and decisions cannot be perfect.

Among the cultural heritages existing today, there is a high interest in the “old road”. The old roads were connected around the post town(驛院) as the center, but little studies were performed on this post town. For this reason, Toegyewon(退溪院), one of the post town in the Joseon Dynasty was studied in this paper. It corresponds to the area of Toegyewon-eup, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do. Although it functioned as a post town near the capital city, only limited general information and some custom were introduced, and no detailed information is known. Thus, through the literature records, this paper figures out the history of Toegyewon, analyzes the records of passing by and looks through the details of people who lived in. It is hoped that the features will be revealed. The characteristics of Toegyewon are as follows. First, it functioned as the nearest post town from the capital city since the early Joseon Dynasty and was considered as an important place for the king's visit. There are circumstances of taking a rest, looking around the conditions of farming, and etc. during the king’s visit to royal tombs. Second, it was located at a transportation hub and became a resting place for coming and going from the east Seoul. It is caught that the tourists had lunch or made appointments to meet. Third, a village was built around the post town then it had the limelight as a country house of nobleman(士大夫). For example, they made use of it for managing ancestor’s graves, enjoying the natural scenery and conducting their political life. In conclusion, it was a space where the function of the post town in Joseon Dynasty and characteristics of near the capital city coexisted.

The concise content of 李白’s ‘writing a reply to a foreign country(草答蕃書)’ was transmitted to various literature, and then it was embodied as a concrete event in the late Ming(明末) novel <lǐ-zhé-xiān-zuì-cǎo-xià-mán-shū (李謫仙醉草嚇蠻書)>(included in the 『警世通言』 and 『今古奇觀』 as well). I found out that such a detail as a novel was already made in Luo Guan-zhong(羅貫中)’s novel 『suí-táng-liǎng-cháo-shǐ-chuán(隋唐兩朝史傳)』, and that <李謫仙醉草嚇蠻書> changed the foreign country from Kitan(契丹) to Balhae(渤海), accepting its contents. In this novel, when an envoy of 渤海 delivers a national letter written in its own language and demands that territory taken over by Tang(唐), 李白 frustrates the request by writing a reply, ‘hyek-man-seo(嚇蠻書)’ in 渤海’s letter also. Why did <李謫仙醉草嚇蠻書> set the other country in 渤海? In this novel, 渤海 asked for the old land of Goguryeo(高句麗), and when the 渤海’s envoy came, the officials of 唐 dynasty reminded of the hardships & frustrations that Taejong(太宗) suffered during the war with 高句麗. And in his ‘嚇蠻書’, 李白 warned that 渤海 would eventually follow the train of 高句麗, which had been destroyed by 唐. The intention of this novel is to resolve the complex of China that was caused by the failure of several times in the war with 高句麗 through the fictional history which made 渤海, a country that succeeded 高句麗 and existed at the time of 李白, appear. Several Korean scholars including Shin Chae-ho(申采浩) have regarded the contents of <李謫仙醉草嚇蠻書> as true, and have mentioned that 渤海 was an independent and strong nation based on the fact that 渤海 had diplomacy with 唐 in its own language. However, because 渤海 and 唐 maintained a friendly relationship in the period when the story unfolds, the contents that 渤海 threatened 唐 by a national letter were not realistic, and unlike the viewpoints of scholars in the past, this is the story that 渤海 finally surrendered to 唐 and paid tribute. Rather, it is more important to know that the Chinese works themselves reflect the consciousness of close connection or succession between 高句麗·渤海 and the perception of the fact that 高句麗 competed fiercely with 唐 as an independent country. This is because it is not only true to the reality of the work, but it will also help to establish the right recognition of ancient history between Korea and China.

The purpose of this paper is to pay attention to the cause of the literaturization process of Mandukjeon, the story of Jeju kisang Kim Man-duk, and to reconstruct the formation of the difference in the historical flow of his time. In other words, based on the literary technique realization method of Kim Man-deok who has been regarded as the “a righteous merchant who helped the poor people of Jeju” in the meantime, I want to. In particular, I look at the socioeconomic requirements of the noblemen who look at the act of Kisaeng, based on the personality of Sim No-sung who presented the negative view of Kim Man-deok uniquely among the existing recorded documents. Thus, Sim No-Sung's view on the fossilized Kim Man-deok's story will provide the ideology and dissipation of the ritual of the Noron’s ability, who has otherized women, Kisaeng, and earning the money in the special space of Jeju.

The deictic word ‘저’ is a term used for objects that are at a similar distance from both poetic speakers and listeners. The deictic word ‘저’ includes spatial and psychological distance concepts. This article examines how one poetic component, Deictic word ‘저’, works throughout the works as a whole, and what the intent of its use is. For this purpose, the poetic object, the speaker, and the listener were considered in three sections. The results are as follows. First, The deictic word ‘저’ is involved by controlling the distance between the poetic speaker and poetic object in the works of SiJo. Second, The use of the deictic word ‘저’ suppresses the poetic speaker's excessive exposure of emotion. Third, The use of the deictic word ‘저’ allows listeners who are listening to the SiJo to join in the work. The deictic word ‘저’ is a poetic component of a very microscopic dimension. However, this contributes to maintaining the poetic stability of the SiJo and keeping it as SiJo.

This study researches the cultural significance and the characteristics of Eongan(Korean old vernacular letter) materials of Chogye Jung’s clan as a noble family in Geochang region, Gyeongnam in the late 19th century. The Eongan preserved in Jung’s clan about 40 letters in total. The information of the writers and characters of these letters could be traced, and the background of the time could be determined as the 1880s-1890s. And they also show the intertextuality that could assume a specific personal affair or family history by recomposing individual information between letters. Especially, this study paid attention to ten letters by Mrs. Milyang Byeon who was a daughter-in-law of Jung’s clan. Those letters by Mrs. Byeon are very long and concrete, filled with vivid expressions, which is very different from Hangeul letters by other women in the late Joseon Dynasty. Through the old Hangeul letters by Mrs. Byeon, this study analyzed two things as follows. First, the noble women in the late Joseon Dynasty played the overall roles in the economic management and direction of clans. Second, they played the core roles like actively discussing and supporting the strategy and planning of civil service examinations for men. In the future, there should be more detailed follow-up researches on the rest letters of Jung’s clan. The themes like the relationship of main characters shown in Eongan of Jung’s clan, examination of personal affairs of each character, and the recomposition of family history would be handled in the next research.