2016, Vol., No.34

Journal of Korean Literature 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.62

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

Chunhyangjeon, the story of Chunhyang, had been enjoyed as the popular novel and entertainment until 1910’s. But after 1920’s when the ‘literary for people’ was claimed and the scholars from Keijo Imperial University studied it, Chunhyangjeon became accepted as academic subject and classical novel. In those days, although different opinions had been held, the 84-page block book printed in Jeonju was recognized as the original and best text. The textbooks for high school made after liberation were affected by canon that had been consisted during Japanese colonial era, so Chunhyangjeon in the 84-page block book was regarded as the national classic until 1980’s. During that period textbooks contained the part of the story from ‘the departure of secret royal inspectors’ to ‘the chunhyang in prison’ because they set a high value on the resistance of people as the agent of history. However the text and the part of Chunhyangjeon was changed after 1990’s when the status of Chunhyangjeon as national classic has been weakened. Since 2000’s, Chunhyangjeon in textbook is contained not to show the national tradition but to show the cultural continuity. So now we are asked to reestablish the value of Chunhyangjeon.

In this study, I trace back the early stage of recreating classical Chosun novels into modern publication, through investigating the translation of Choonhyang-Jeon (春香傳) by Japanese writers in early 20th century. Of particular interest are the works by Nakarai Tosui(半井桃水) in 1882, by Takahashi Toru(高橋亨) in 1910, and by Hosoi Hajime(細井肇) in 1921, the last one being titled as Kwanghanru-Ki (廣寒樓記). These translated editions were created in the political background of Japan's economic invasion, annexation of Korea, and 3.1 Independence Movement. They were recreated for the purpose of understanding the culture and spirit of Chosun and transformed accordingly. The erotic elements of the original version were abbreviated and the traditional values such as the fidelity and filial piety were stressed. As a result, the social criticism and the entertaining aspects of the original version were diminished, reflecting the contrasting view of the Japanese from that of Chosun. Since 1920's, Choonhyang-Jeon was recognized as a classic by Chosun writers and this appears to reflect those Japanese translations in part. It remains to be uncovered how Choonhyang-Jeon developed and got recognized by Chosun and Japanese writers in contrasting manner through the time-space of modern era.

This article is to consider the current stage of translation into chinese, acceptance & the academic research of ‘Chunhyangjeon(춘향전)’ which is famous for representative classical story of Korea. Especially, ‘Chunhyangjeon’ was dramatically introduced to Chinese people through the performance of Yue drama ‘Chunhyangjeon’ in 1954, and then the study on ‘Chunhyangjeon’ was begun in earnst by Chinese researchers. This article is significant for examining the current stage of the research regarding ‘Chunhyangjeon’ through both doctoral and master’s theses and papers proposed in China. Such researches and essays, which include 1 doctoral thesis, 14 master’s theses, and about 46 excerpts from various academic journals, mainly focus on the characteristics of protagonists, language expressions, central theme, ethnic consciousness, and overall comparison of these aspects to those of Chinese literature or culture. As most of them have used comparative literature approach in researches of one of the most famous Korean classics, it is clear that since China-centered perspective already dominated the mainstream and Korea still plays a little role, a limit has been set along the outcome which may possibly be achieved in the future.