KJCKorea
Journal Central

As a ‘free man’, human beings refuse to be subject to certain ideologies, religions, and principles. A man can have a moral qualities, moral characters and intellectual and emotional virtue through a education. This is called a liberal arts. Therefore, ‘liberal arts’ is the ‘elevation of humanity’ and is the ‘free-will of the man.’ On the other hand, the ‘war’ is the irrational behavior of human who are enslaved by the economy and politics, race and ethnicity, ideology and religions. The purpose of this paper is to study trauma caused by war through <Geomseung-Jeon> of Seokbuk Sin, Gwangsu. Also I studied how the historical narrative heals the wounds and trauma caused by the war. In addition, I studied the meaning as a liberal art of <Geomseung-Jeon>. <Geomseung-Jeon> is a retrospection of a monk, Geomseung who had participated in the Japanese invasion of Chosun Korea in 1592. He was a swordsman of Japanese army. There is the same story of Geomseung at <Haksanhaneon>, <A Bizarre Monk of Mt. Geumgang>. But a representation method of <Geomseung-Jeon> is different from <A Bizarre Monk of Mt. Geumgang>. In the case of <Geomseung-Jeon>, Geomseung is focalized by a certain person who is unsubstantial. On the other hand, in <A Bizarre Monk of Mt.Geumgang>, Geomseung is focalized by Maeng, Ju-seo who is a real person. Therefore, the narrator of <A Bizarre Monk of Mt. Geumgang> records the story of Geomseung as Maeng, Ju-seo saw it. But, the narrator of <Geomseung-Jeon> reconstruct the story of Geomseung by making a unsubstantial focalizer, a fictional witness. Through the narrative, wounds of war that Geomsa and Geomseung experienced when the Imjin War is vividly depicted in <Geomseung-Jeon>. In addition, by noting the ultimate cause of the wound through the story, the subject consciousness of narrator were emphasized. He, despite have excellent swordsmanship of ability, rather than raising the veterans in the war, were selected to spend hiding in the mountains. However, despite these selection, he did not eliminate anger. In addition, he is killed by another disciple that he helped. This means his ontological anxiety. His ontological anxiety to expose the absurdity of the Korean society, which is located at the root of war. If society institutional attrition exclusion in distinction without an admission the independence of others, in such a society, it is difficult to expect a complete mutual understanding relationship. In summary, <Geomseung-Jeon> is the text of the ‘liberal arts’ to look back to that of the Korean social issues lurking behind the war through the story of Geomseung and the bizarre monk of Mt. Geumgang.

liberal arts, Imjin War, focalizer, dentity, <Geomseung-Jeon>, communication