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The consciousness and expression of old age in Hong Eurn’s elderly sijo

  • The Studies in Korean Poetry and Culture
  • Abbr : Korean Poetry and Culture
  • 2024, (53), pp.35-60
  • Publisher : The Society of Korean Poetry and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : January 29, 2024
  • Accepted : February 15, 2024
  • Published : February 28, 2024

KIM AYUN 1

1광주여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

On March 23, 1941, Hong Eurn(洪焉, 1880-1951), who worked as an independence activist, journalist, and writer during the Japanese Colonial Period in USA, had the 60th birthday party in the Heungsadan(Young Korean Academy) meeting room in Los Angeles, USA. Before and after his 60th birthday party, he composed 25 works of elderly sijo(老人時調) and published them on the ‘Sajo(詞藻)’ section of The New Korea(Shinhan-Minbo). The purpose of this paper is to present the consciousness and expression of old age in his elderly sijo. The gist of this paper is as follows: Firstly, this paper has explored the consciousness of old age expressed in his elderly sijo, including ‘changes in the body, lamentation of aging, and futility,’ ‘ageless mind and envy of youth,’ ‘acknowledgment of aging and adaptation to nature,’ and ‘longing for home and confirmation of self-identity.’ Secondly, this paper has determined the expression methods of old age shown in his elderly sijo, it strongly expresses the lyricism and realism about old age, which are the characteristics of ‘poems in which the subject of speech is old age,’ introduces natural objects and others that are distinct from the poetic speaker to express old age, and its by revealing emotions, old age reveals two sides, such as decrepitude・powerless・ugliness & maturity. The following conclusion can be drawn as a result of this paper. His elderly sijo represented as if he had ‘suffered’ old age in the stream of time, but he recognized it as one of the natural phenomena and gradually accepted it positively. this paper, therefore, in the early stages of the creation of the elderly sijo, he presented the lamentation of aging, but in the end, he presented the maturity of completing his personality in old age. In this way, since his elderly sijo can confirm that the author’s perception and attitude toward old age has changed, it can be concluded that multipleness appears throughout his works.

Citation status

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