KJC Korea
Journal Central

This paper examines the shape and meaning of Yuk Chi-ok in Hyeonssiyang-ungssanglingi and Mok Ji-ran in Imssisamdaerok as embodying the foolish female figure. They are women who have nothing to lose, and they become the male protagonist’s concubines by sounding the drum by desire for love. However, after marriage, Mokjiran disappears when she is killed by a wicked man, and Chi-Ok Yuk finds his place despite committing evil deeds. Yuk Chi-ok and Mok Ji-ran show the schematicity and liminality of the foolish woman as a character type. Folly is at the boundary between good and evil, according to Confucian ideology, and a foolish ugly is made other by Confucian ideology, establishing the scheme of “folly = ugliness”. However, the results of their pursuit of desire are different. This can be understood as being derived from the reality of Hyeonssiyang- ungssanglingi and the ideology of Imssisamdaerok, but the reason can also be found in the boundaries of foolish women. This is because the boundaries of foolish women can be understood as the value of their existence, which is linked to the duality of the Korean novel. Therefore, Yuk Chi-ok, who constantly desires and has boundaries, can survive, but Mok Ji-ran, who has lost the boundaries by conforming to the ideology, disappears.

Readers’ perception of classics as “interpretable text” means that they are restructured into the reader and their environment. This is to derive the value of classics through the subject of interpretation in the space and time of interpretation. Narrativity is a representative element that makes a text valuable. Narrativity refers to things that exist within specific narratives, that is, the driving force or premise that creates the narrative. The narrativity in text is not a genre; rather, it is a narrative element that readers find in the text, and a value that is found in a possible world. Jagi-lok and Hanjung-lok are records[록錄] in terms of naming. Even though the records include actors and events, which are deservedly narrative elements, it is the interpreter who converts them into a narrative. Some interpreters may recognize the narrative elements in Jagi-lok and Hanjung-lok, as the same, while others may view them as different. This paper studies the difference between the two texts: the possible world that the reader derives from each text and, how the two possible worlds are different through the semantic action of the dialectics and dialogic in the texts. This paper examines the contributions of the reader's possible world to the repurposing of the classics.

Hyo(filial piety), which has absolute respect for the father’s will at its core, is a mechanism that immortalizes fathers, and constitutes the ethical core of patriarchy that operating based on paternal authority. However, in the late Joseon dynasty, when the patriarchal system was at its peak, many novels criticized and denied the father’s tao, but also included the narrative of a child who is seen as a “filial son”. On the surface, it seems that the hyo that sustains the father’s immortality as well as patriarchy is participating in shaking paternal authority and threatening the status of the patriarchal system. In the process, the snob-type father and the great-hyo narrative stand out. This article examines the crisis signs of patriarchy that are captured in the novel, centering on Jang Heon in Alliance Formed at the Wanwŏl Pavilion in which the snob-type father character is in full swing in, the narrative context of filial piety, focusing on the great-hyo narrative. The snob-type father, represented by Jang Heon, symbolizes the discord between the individual father and the patriarchal system caused by social and economic changes in the late Joseon dynasty. Jang Heon reveals the point of separation from the patriarchal system as his snob-type father’s serious survival strategy; however, the father is caricatured in mockery. In the process, King Shun’s preexisting great filial piety is reinforced. Great filial piety goes beyond general filial piety, which follows the father’s will and denies the father as filial piety. Great-hyo, which is redesigned to heal his father’s tao, can also declare the death of an individual father who revealed the patriarchal system’s weakness while pursuing survival. Although the immortal father dies due to the redesign of filial piety, the patriarchal system extends his life.

Yeonhaengrok is a travel journal written by envoys who travelled to China during the Joseon dynasty. It records the natural scenery, culture, and daily life experienced during the visit. It is a valuable cultural heritage document that shows the history, politics, social culture, and diplomatic relations between China and Korea. It can be divided into Chinese and Hangul; most related studies have been conducted on the Chinese version. This study examines the changes in Chinese women and in the way Joseon envoys view women in the earliest of the 14 types of the original Hangul that have been unearthed so far, including Jo- cheonilrseng(朝天日乘), Yeonhaengilrki(연일긔), Eul-Byeong-Yeonhaengrok (을병연녹), Muo-yeon-hangrok(무오연녹), Bukyeongihaeng(븍연긔), and Yeonhaeng-rok(연녹). Given that the author were familiar with Chinese ideology and the patriarchal system, their view of Chinese women will be an indicator reflecting change among the Joseon literati and in the official consciousness of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Chinese female images in Yeonsailrok reflect the specific images and existing ideas in the authors’ eyes. They had a special interest in Chinese women’s clothing and attire, separating Chinese women into two categories, namely the “woman of Han(漢女)” and the “woman of Hu(胡女)” and generally expressing affirmation toward them. This shows that the authors took pride in inheriting the tradition of the Ming dynasty and expressed a sense of Sojunghwa(小中華). The main readers of Hangul Yeonhaengrok are Korean women, and they build knowledge on China and form images of Chinese women. Thus, the images of the “woman of Han” and the “woman of Hu” in Hangul can be seen as a device to attract female readers and strengthen women’s virtues.

Korean language scholar Choi Hyeon-bae, who insisted on the use of pure Korean text from 1894 to 1970, was also interested in Korean literature, and his interest led to the creating of Oesol. This paper attempts to analyze the meaning of Sijo Oesol through Choi Hyun-bae's view on literature. As a Korean language scholar, Choi Hyeon-Bae defined literary demand as a demand for life and aimed for literature that encompasses the individual’s life and the nation’s, fate and history. Oesol expressed years in prison, thoughts of his hometown, traveling, and longing for Ju Si-gyeong. In that sijo, Choi Hyun-bae’s personal feelings and his reflection on the nation were in balance and harmony. The sentiment of the sijo reflects his literary view that literary demand is the demand of life. Meanwhile, Choi Hyun-bae also revealed an important difference between himself and Jeong In-bo. While Jeong In-bo focused on the musicality of sijo based on classical Chinese literature, it was important for Choi Hyun-bae to maintain the linguistic structure of sijo. However, this difference should not be viewed as a conflict between Choi Hyun-bae’s and Jeong In-bo’s sijo literature. To analyze and deeply reflect on Choi Hyun-bae’s and Jeong In-bo’s literature, this paper intends to lay the foundation for research history.

This paper attempts to examine the paradigm maintained by Sonimgut to position it in relation to reality as well as narrative. To this end, the study first examines the overall syntactic flow of Sonimgut, which is a cumulative structure that conveys and affirms the importance of welcome- hospitality-farewell to guest gods in stages. This structure has one paradigm, which can be called a kind of social(goodwill) paradigm, as it sees the guest god as an object of welcome, hospitality, and farewell. In order to examine the specificity of such a paradigm, we explore what this paradigm aims for in the society and culture in which the Gut is performed. Reinterpreting smallpox from a biological or medical point of view emphasizes that the social modeling of diseases built by this text is cultural and special rather than inherent and essential. These paradigms are repeated, reaffirmed, and rebuilt at every Sonimgut, driving some attitude toward the disease in its audience: a particular worldview. It is a human-made worldview that sees that human behavior and choice can lead to disease and recovery from disease. Finally, this paper recognizes that in the Pandemic-era, the source and result of Sonimgut can introduce recognizesmeaningful questions and answers to this worldview.

The approaches herein initiate interpretations from the hypothesis about complementary relations between hyang-jeon(folklore narrative) and seung-jeon(Buddhistic narrative) in the subchapter “Ugmyeonbi- yeombulseoseung” of Samgugyusa. These interpretations improve and extend the meaning of the female slave Ugmyeon’s praying practice and attainment of Buddhahood. Developments of interpretations based on the complementarity hypothesis within the holistic view are more rational and robust than the dichotomous hypothesis of reductionism. This argument is justified by critical examination of reductive interpretations and a meta-review of narrative text inquiries. From refutations of the concealed premises of precedent discussions, it became clear that reductional premises are not appropriate for “Ugmyeonbiyeombulseoseung” taken as a whole text that presumably has intention and design with regard to descriptions and elaborated relations among the indispensable parts of the subchapter: two narratives, a eulogy, and a discussion. Specifically, hyang-jeon emphasizes the will of Ugmyeon’s Buddhistic practice for attaining Buddhahood in the “here and now.” and seung-jeon offers concrete information about Ugmyeon’s previous life and later events, such as commemorative action, memento production, temple construction and reconstruction, and so on. They are explicitly correlated with each other in the interpretations in the third chapter. Consequently, these approaches attain effective interpretation-courses from the holistic view with cogency and richness, so that they do not degrade and contort the meaning of ‘Ugmyeon’ and her narratives.

This paper explores a type of literary intellectuals’ consciousness toward China in the late Joseon dynasty through the mediation of Yeonhaengrok. This paper focuses on Ilsinsuphil written by Park Jiwon as a main analysis text. As this text deals with the discussion of what to learn and how to learn in China in great detail it allows us to study one perception of China in the late Joseon period. However, not only are the discussions in the introduction in consistent, the relationship between the introduction and Ilsinsuphil has not been properly revealed. Therefore, the details of what and how Park Jiwon was trying to learn in China are not clearly revealed. In this paper, we review previous research and re-read Ilsinsuphilseo. To obtain the results, we looked at the relationship not only with Ilsinsuphil but also with Yeolhailgi. Park Jiwon tried to create a magnificent spectacle of the Chinese, that is, the Chinese system through the introduction. This paper confirms that he emphasized the necessity of overcoming the limits of Gujihak(口耳之學) : he does not look deeply into what he hears through his ears; he only conveys it to others through his mouth, and cannot make it his own at all) and Jeongryang(情量), unlike other scholars of the Joseon dynasty. Furthermore, it is possible to state that Ilsinsuphil and Yeolhailgi were composed according to the purpose and method suggested in this introduction. This paper describes what Park Jiwon saw and heard, centering on daily records, and summarizing things affected by Jeongryang (情量) in the new formats. This paper confirms that the direction of Jeongryang(情量) was supportive of China’s government, that is, China’s unique law and system. The introduction, daily records and other records of Park Jiwon’s Ilsinsuphil are texts that show one type of literary intellectuals’ consciousness toward China in the late Joseon dynasty. Among them, the introduction serves as the basis for the composition and description both Ilsinsuphil and Yeolhailgi; therefore it is necessary to newly evaluate the introduction of Ilsinsuphil, which wholly permeates Yeolhailgi.

This study was conducted as part of a search for local values. In order to study legend as local culture and promote the revitalization of the cultural industry, a specific methodology for local cultural research should be prepared. Therefore, this study selected a landmark folktales in Chungbuk province by utilizing photography semiotics “characteristics of index” and architectural engineering’s “landmark” theory in order to find a specific methodology for local literature research. Landmark folktales see local legends as landmarks that represent or distinguish a region and highlight text that contains regional characteristics. The landmark folktale is said to have five characteristics: visibility, uniqueness, characteristics of social value, characteristics of community and characteristics of cluster. At least one characteristic and up to all five can appear in a single text. At this time, it can be said that a landmark-folktale can represent the region only when the text’s landmark characteristics are clearly revealed. Visibility, uniqueness, and characteristics of social value are the primary requirements of landmark tales. Lastly, considering the characteristics of index and the landmark- folktale, based on the text Jeonseolji, which is a representative collection of legends in Chungbuk, a landmark-folktale representing each of Chungbuk province’s 11 cities and counties was selected and analyzed.

This thesis examines what Yang-Se the unrecognized son in a disconnected father-son relationship is doing, the kind of feelings he has, and what results his actions produce in the 18th-century Korean classic novel HyeonMongSsangRyongGi. Yang-Se descends into perversity because of his father's disapproval and discrimination, cause a family feud, and tries to kill his father. Finally, he dies by taking part in a treasonous plot. Earlier in the narrative, Yang-Se becomes jealous of his sister because of a father-son conflict, and his jealously motivates him to plot to harm his sister. When this does not work out, he becomes increasingly wicked and eventually hurts his father. Yang-Se wanted his father’s love, but the tragedy began because he was a son who did not meet his father's expectations, and after misbehaving, he came to the conclusion that his father would either kill him or ask the king to kill him. Hence, the figure of Yang-Se in HyeonMongSsang- RyongGi, is a way to advance the narrative interestingly, while highlighting the central family and fostering introspection about father-son conflict the biggest issue of the time.

This article aims to analyze Korean written folktales based on the concept of mystery and investigate the cultural meaning of inference. There are two reasons to investigate the cognition of a mystery tale. First, mystery is a reconstitution of the past using abduction reasoning, which is similar to the imagination. It signifies how mystery tales restructure the past and present the possibility of the future through inference. Second, the process of inference is to find the implication of the system model to which the subject is oriented. It intends to analyze how the idealized cognitive model interacts with imagination and cognition in mystery. The folktale is a literary genre in which stacked cultural codes are the most unfiltered, it is therefore considered to be the most effective genres for accessing the cultural significations of mystery. The tendency toward conservative subject characteristics and the context of judgment can be regarded as a limitation. However, the object of mystery tales not only achieves the understanding of a case but also reconstitutes the past through repeated reinterpretation. Therefore, the reconstruction of the past represented in the mystery tale itself becomes an open view that presents future possibilities.