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Romantic Sensibility of Na Do-hyang's Novels -Focused on the ethical attitude of main characters-

Seo Eunhye 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In several reports, the romanticism of the Na Do-hyang's novels were understood to mean the same as 'sentimentalism' or 'longing', and it was mainly criticized as an indication of lack of realism. There are two main reasons for the negative connotation of the romanticism in those reports. First, They consider the characteristics of Na's novels are considerably similar to those of literary coterie magazine "Swan", which Na Do-hyang belongs. Second, They want to establish literary continuity from "Swan" to the Anti-conventional literature. They want to explain sentimentalism which is mentioned as the feature of the former is transferred realism, which is considered as that of the latter. However, researchers begin to consider the romanticism in 1920s not as a historical art trend, but as a problem of sensibility lately. In addition to this, the contents and implications of romantic sensibility of Na’s Do-hyang novel is not limited to the talking about the "Swan" literary character, but it is necessary to be narrated inductively through analyzing his various works. This report focus on the ethical sensibility of Na Do-hyang's characters. In western romanticism, nature was considered as the representation of eternity and sacred. It was the result of resistance against the mechanicalistic view of the world. But in Chosen literary field in 1920s, the representation of eternity was much more cultural, such as love, art, trust. These concepts were imported by western society in that period. And Na wants to demonstrate the characters who support eternal values such as love and art faithfully. They face many obstacles such as the logic of capitalism in newly modernized Chosen, but they also overcome through fidelity to their own belief. Death is the result of that kind of attitude. This kind of fidelity, which Na's characters show, is grounded of the argument of Nietzsche. Na Do-hyang agree the morality of "the strong" ("übermensch" in Nietzsche's context) of Nietzsche. We can find it from the several mentions of characters. The strong person, same as "übermensch" in Nietzsche's context, judge the whole events by his own ethical opinion. He does not follow social morality unconditionally. In conclusion, the romantic sensibility of Na Do-hyang's characters are newly summed up three points. First, the tendency of following the value of eternity, such as love, art, and trust. Second, we can find a ethical fidelity to the eternal value in diverse works. They sometimes choose to die for defending their belief. Third, they consider the value of spontaneous judgement in moral dilemma importantly. This results help us to distinct characteristics of Na's own romantic sensibility from those of other "Swan" members.

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