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A Study on the possibility of application of Kim Yoo-jeong's Novels in Literary Therapeutics

  • Korean Language & Literature
  • 2015, (92), pp.351-374
  • Publisher : Korean Language & Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

Heung Nam Jeon 1

1한려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

As much as the selection of text is important in literary therapy, there are a lot of factors to be considered such as cognition level, mental states, and sensitivity of readers since the adequacy of the texts can influence the application process and effects. Literary therapy is a kind of psychotherapy in a sense that it intends to help people out of normal state of mind regain normal mentality through literary works. Literary therapy is for people who are able to appreciate literary works and express their opinions at the very least. Therefore, it can be restricted or impossible for people with severe mental disease. It is also different from methods used by psychiatrists and their subjects to some extent. In this context, I focused on applying the mechanisms and effects of laughter found in Kim Yoo-jeong’s novels in order to apply the perspective of literary therapy and find its possibility from a preliminary standpoint. I considered her works especially good for the literary therapy texts in that they are more humorous compared to the works of other authors. The mechanisms and effects of laughter in her novels would not be the exclusive device in bringing out the therapeutic effects when it comes to literary therapy, but they would contribute to identifying oneself with the characters and the expansion of emotional sympathy accordingly. This study on the perspective of literary therapy is expected to shed some light on issues regarding the expansion and interdisciplinary studies of humanities, and ways of breaking the crisis of humanities. However, it should also be noted that the appliance of the perspective of literary therapy can be restrictive. The fact that literature tends to be inconclusive works as a disadvantage regarding the perspective of literary therapy. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a practical turning-point for the literature studies by probing the emotion or cognition that lie under the literary works. This study is at the preliminary stage of only examining the possibility of applying the perspective of literary therapy of Kim Yoo-jeong’s novels. There needs to be further studies on confirming its possibility of appliance and effects.

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