2007, Vol.15, No.15

Journal of Korean Literature 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.62

pISSN : 1598-2076
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kukmun

The tears in ChunHyangJeon춘향전 - the meanings and the traces of variation Ryu Jun Kyung The aim of this essay is to consider aspects and variations of sorrows represented by tears and to reveal the reason and meaning of those in ChunHyangJeon춘향전. There are three kinds of tears in ChunHyangJeon춘향전 - tears of disobeidence, tears of loneliness and longing, tears of deep emotion. In the history of ChunHyangJeon춘향전, the scenes of tears, especially the scenes of tears of loneliness and longing, had been expanded. And most of all sentimentality is remarkable in these scenes of tears of loneliness and longing. And this states are caused by strengthening of popularity in ChunHyangJeon춘향전.

A Tradition of Donggwan(彤管) and Gender Politics on Daily Lives Lee, Kyung-Ha One topic of this essay is that women's Haengjang(行狀), records of a dead person's life, and Myojimyong(墓誌銘), a kind of epitaphs, originated from a tradition of Donggwan(彤管). In ancient China, Donggwan originally meant documents that Yeosa(女史), a female historiographer, recorded daily lives of queens, and the meaning changed to 'a history of ideal women' in Joseon Dynasty. In this essay, I regard women's Haengjang and Myojimyong as writing belonged to tradition of Donggwan as well as tradition of 'writing for the dead'. Another topic is to discuss what value women's Haengjang and Myojimyong have as historial materials. Scarcity of materials and historical records is one of big problems in studies of women's classical literary history. In this viewpoint, Haengjang and Myojimyong are very important sources for women's history. Because so many women's Haengjang and and Myojimyong were written during Joseon Dynasty and the documents often contained many kinds of informations about women's daily lives. However, women's daily lives were usually represented as very normative forms, which spoke for gender politics in women's daily lives in the Middle Ages.

Sinocentrism of Kerean classical novels Chung Kil-soo This thesis aims at searching for the movement of self-recognition of Korean classical novels within the framework of the theory of civilization and barbarism華夷論 or the relation between ‘Ego’ and ‘Others’. Choe-go-un-jeon, written before the latter half of the 16th century, is the earliest work that contains the spirit of insubordination against Sinocentrism(China-centerism). On the contrary, in the full-length-novels after the latter half of the 17th century, Choseon(Ego) identifies itself with China(Others) and excludes other countries in East Asia(Others). This mental changeover, found in such Kerean classical novels as Changseon-gamui-rok, So-hyeon- seong-rok, and Wanwol-hoemaeng-yeon for the first time in 17th and 18th century, is connected with the rise of Korean-Sinocentrism朝鮮中華主義. Song Si-Yeol宋時烈, the ideologue of Korean-Sinocentrism, advocated the theory of civilization and barbarism ‘in culture’. It means the barbarians can be a new center of Sinocentrism, if they have the orthodoxy of Chinese culture. There are two ways in front of the cultural theory of civilization and barbarism. One is the cultural relativism, and the other is exclusive absolutism. Song Si-Yeol's Korean-Sinocentrism is the irrational absolutism that Choseon can be the new cultural center of Sinocentrism, but Ching淸 dynasty cannot be that. Korean classical novels, from Koo-woon-mong to Ok-roo-mong, move on to follow the cognition of Korean-Sinocentrism.