2024, Vol., No.50

Reviewal of Samseolgy Version “Nocheonyeo-ga” in Non-disabled Societies

Lee, Kyungha | 2024, (50) | pp.5~30 | number of Cited : 0

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Aspects and Meaning of the Foolish Wife Character Types in the Series of Myeongju Bowolbing -Focusing on ‘Yeon princess’ and ‘Yeon Hui-byeok’-

Inseon YOO | 2024, (50) | pp.31~54 | number of Cited : 0

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This study explores the portrayal and narrative significance of the “foolish wife” (愚婦型) character type in the Myeongju Bowolbing(明珠寶月聘) series, a classic Korean novel from the late Joseon Dynasty. The series repeatedly presents this character type through the figures of Yeon Princess and Yeon Hui-byeok. In the first part, Myeongju Bowolbing, the focus is on the marriage between Ha Won-gwang and Yeon Princess, while the second part, Yunhajeong Sammun Chuirok(尹河鄭三門聚錄), examines the marriage between Ha Mong-seong and Yeon Hui-byeok. The narrative, which shows two generations of prominent male heirs marrying “foolish wives,” adds complexity and illustrates the evolution of this character type throughout the series. In the series, Yeon Princess holds the status of a “secondary wife,” while Yeon Hui-byeok occupies the role of the “primary wife,” leading to different outcomes of acceptance and exclusion. This reflects the conservative and discriminatory attitudes toward the roles of primary and secondary wives. Despite her foolishness, Yeon Princess is accepted into the family due to her love and obedience toward her husband. In contrast, Yeon Hui-byeok, lacking the qualities expected of a primary wife and consistently challenging her husband’s authority, experiences ongoing conflict and eventually dies of postpartum illness. Her death symbolizes how women who fail to meet the expectations of a primary wife and Matron of the household are excluded and erased in a patriarchal society, while also illustrating the differential expectations of primary and secondary wives in late Joseon society. Moreover, unlike other works such as Yussi Samdaerok(劉氏三代錄) and Imssi Samdaerok(林氏三代錄), which depict foolish wives from humble backgrounds, Myeongju Bowolbing portrays foolish wives from prestigious families, offering a more nuanced interpretation. The series also demonstrates narrative expansion and variation across its two parts. Through its depiction of the “foolish wife,” Myeongju Bowolbing reveals diverse character portrayals and new narrative possibilities, while also reflecting the values and consciousness of its readers from that era.

A Study on the Different Versions and Narrative Features of Jin Gil Jeon

Chae Yun-mi | 2024, (50) | pp.55~90 | number of Cited : 0

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This thesis examines the different version and narrative characteristics of the classical novel Jin Gil Jeon. Jin Gil Jeon has been known as the Jin Gil Chung Hyorok, but there has never been a review of the different version and discussion of the entire narrative. There are currently four confirmed versions: two from Chonnam National University, and one each from Dankook University and Park Soon-ho. Only the Dankook University version is a lost version. The Chonnam National University versions are all in the Jin Gil Jeon series, while the Dankook University and Park Soon-ho versions are in the Jin Gil Chung Hyorok series. There is no significant difference in content between the series. Meanwhile, Jin Gil Chung Hyorok is a version that contains the entire narrative structure of Jin Gil Jeon, “Jingil’s lifetime,” while adding the narrative of Jingil’s sister’s birth in the beginning and a military tale and a tale of conflict between spouses in the latter part. However, the narrative added only to Jin Gil Chung Hyorok was inconsistent with the character personalities and narrative logic presented in “Jingil’s lifetime.” Accordingly, it was judged that the completeness of Jin Gil Jeon was higher, and in this study, the narrative of Jin Gil Jeon was analyzed. The narrative characteristics of Jin Gil Jeon were examined from three aspects. First, in the story of the marriage between a man and a woman, Guunmong is utilized as a allusion, but more notable is the use of previous novels in terms of narrative composition. Sodaeseong Jeon, Jo Woong Jeon, and Sukhyang Jeon were adopted for the narratives of Jin Gil’s birth, marriage, and achievement, respectively. Second, the narrative of birth, marriage, and achievement is driven by transcendental elements. Third, it is notable that the eight inserted poems assist the development of the narrative. Jin Gil Jeon shows an attempt to vary the heroic novel type. This is because it shows the protagonist’s personal desire to achieve personal desire within the given order by using the protagonist’s life story of success as the only narrative structure, but it also has a critical difference in that it does not set up the protagonist’s suffering. If we keep in mind that Sodaeseong Jeon, Jo Woong Jeon, and Sukhyang Jeon, which were accepted in terms of narrative structure, are representative narratives of the heroic novel type in which the protagonist’s suffering is extreme, it can be understood as a result of dissatisfaction with this. But the results ended up revealing limitations. The absence of suffering caused problems such as the narrative cohesion, the dynamic of the development of the story, and the sense of purpose of the conscious orientation to become ambiguous. The emphasis on transcendental elements and the repeated insertion of songs praising loyalty and filial piety can be understood as devices to resolve this. However, the emphasis on loyalty and filial piety through song seems like an attempt to artificially instill ethical ideology, and the narrative drive by transcendental elements highlights the failure of the protagonist’s individual characterization.

The Relationship of Characters and Thematic Consciousness in Seohaemureunggi西海武陵記

Choi Ji Nyeo | 2024, (50) | pp.91~114 | number of Cited : 0

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“Hongjungnae-jeon” as a 19th Century History Imagined by the First Generation Korean American

Hwang Jae-moon | 2024, (50) | pp.115~144 | number of Cited : 0

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“Hongjungnae-jeon” is a full-length classical novel written in the 1920s by Nakchung Thun, a first-generation Korean American writer. This novel depicts Korean history from the end of Hong Gyeongnae’s rebellion to right after the Gapsin Coup, but this history is quite different from the actual history. Because it is an imagined history based on the assumptions that “if Hong Gyeongnae had not died” and “if an organization was created to succeed Hong Gyeongnae’s will,” it does not have the same characteristics as the history depicted in the same period. The way in which 19th century history is reimagined in “Hongjungnae-jeon” can be approached as follows. First, the character setting and arrangement. Since Hong Gyeongnae left Joseon after the failure of the rebellion and indirectly became involved in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China, it was inevitable that there would be characters from the generation after Hong Gyeongnae who would lead the main narrative of the work. In “Hongjungnae-jeon,” in addition to Hong Jungnae, various characters with unique personalities who assisted him were introduced among the people of the northwest, and characters who could represent the social contradictions of Chungcheong Province were also introduced. The fact that fictional characters from Chungcheong Province were introduced as main characters is particularly noteworthy, as it is an aspect not seen in the previous work “Hongkyeongnae-Jeon.” Many of the grand officials of Seoul were real people, but sometimes their careers were changed. Another characteristic is that women who were introduced as more active characters than men. In particular, Ok Pirae, who was called the ‘Hero in the red skirt’, is noteworthy as a new character type. Second, the reconstruction of history. Since “Hongjungnae-jeon” is a work composed based on two assumptions, the history in the novel cannot help but be composed in two directions: the story of Hong Gyeongnae’s later days and the story of the reformist group succeeding Hong Gyeongnae. The story of Hong Gyeongnae can be summarized as the attempt to establish a base for the second rebellion across the Amnok River but failure due to a storm, and the eventual failure to took Seok Dal-gae, a key figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China, as his disciple and now spending his old age. The story of Hong Jungnae’s group is composed in the order of the plan to gather talented people, utilize influential people with the will to reform, and the plan to use force. The third is the reinterpretation of actual historical events and their use in imagined history. In addition to historical events in Joseon such as the rebellions after Hong Gyeongnae, the Byeongin Yangyo, the Shinmi Yangyo, and the Ganghwa Treaty, it also utilizes foreign historical events such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and diplomatic issues between Joseon and Qing, and sometimes attempts a considerable amount of transformation. “Hongjungnae-jeon,” which is completed as an imagined history, is understood to have a different process from the official history but the same result, which can be interpreted as a historical novel that partially has the characteristics of premodern ‘Yeon-ui(演義)’ and modern ‘alternate history.’

The Glorification of Violent Discipline and its Meaning -Focused on “Hyŏnssiyangungssangnin’gi” and “Hyŏnmongssangnyonggi”-

Hwang Ji Hyun | 2024, (50) | pp.145~170 | number of Cited : 0

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This study attempted to grasp the reality of hierarchical patriarchy through violent discipline and its glorification process, focusing on Korean long-form novels, “Hyŏnssiyangungssangnin’gi” and “Hyŏnmongssangnyonggi”, in which ideal patriarchs appear. The physical punishment of parents has been affirmed as a hawk of love. Considering that there is still a perception that affirms violent discipline today, it is natural that corporal punishment was accepted naturally during the Joseon Dynasty. In both texts, corporal punishment is considered a legitimate punishment suitable for the procedure, and the bodies of those who were designated as sinners were thoroughly objectified. Furthermore, violent discipline was glorified as the right child education through various ways. First, justification was achieved by inserting various utterances affirming punishment behavior. Through this, the existence of the patriarch, the punishment and perpetrator, was naturally eliminated. On the other hand, the two texts highlighted the patriarch’s benevolence, and immediately after the corporal punishment, a joke was inserted to offset the violence of bloody corporal punishment. There has been a discussion that the strictness and benevolence of the patriarch conflict, but it should not be overlooked that the status of a genuine patriarch can only stand fully when the two elements coexist in one person. This can be an important starting point for understanding how patriarchy works. Through this glorification, harsh corporal punishment was accepted as natural, ordinary. On the other hand, through a series of processes of children’s disobedience, harsh corporal punishment, and glorification, the patriarch’s high authority was only able to become substantial in front of the family members. The command system, which moves in perfect order under the command of the patriarch, and the objectified body that is overpowered by it show the patriarch’s power to rearrange the order at the same time as a guardian of order. In terms of limiting the scope of the body and reaffirming its position, violent discipline creates a body under order. As a sinner, being asked to voluntarily make appropriate gestures is more than just blaming certain words and actions and preventing the recurrence of such actions. It encourages the person to re-enter the order on his own. In contrast, the patriarch’s body expanded dramatically at the very scene of corporal punishment as a canal of vertical order.

Characteristics of Natural Spaces and Objects in Toegye(退溪) and Yulgok(栗谷)’s Chinese Poems

Yim， Jaewook | 2024, (50) | pp.171~208 | number of Cited : 0

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This thesis examines whether the differences in Toegye(退溪) and Yulgok(栗谷)’s Korean poems, Dosansibigok(陶山十二曲) and Gosangugokga(高山九曲歌), appear as they are in the two writers’ Chinese poems. Toegye’s Dosansibigok and Yulgok’s Gosangugokga show the two artists’ views of nature and humans, and the views of nature and humans expressed in the work appear differently depending on their ideological orientation. First, speaking of their view on nature, Unlike Toegye, who focused on the universal, symbolic, unchanging, and ideal aspects of nature, Yulgok focused on the concrete, changeable, and practical aspects. In addition, while Toegye strongly showed a tendency to confirm some principle or ideology in nature, Yulgok strongly showed a tendency to feel interest in it and enjoy nature as it is. In addition, Dosansibigok and Gosangugokga also reflect Toegye and Yulgok’s perspectives on humans. In Dosansibigok, Toegye sings in a self-confessional voice while maintaining his gaze toward the self, while in Gosangugokga, Yulgok constantly expresses interest in others. This difference between Toegye and Yulgok in their views of nature and humanity is due to the difference in the ‘Yigi(理氣)’ philosophy of the two writers, that is, Toegye emphasizes ‘Yi(理)’, the essential being, and the ‘Sadan(四端)’, its manifestations, while Yulgok focuses on not only ‘Yi(異) but also ‘Gi(氣)’, a phenomenal being, and ‘Chiljeong(七情)’, its manifestations’. In this paper, I examined the common materials of the Chinese poems of Toegye and Yulgok, which correspond to natural spaces and objects, such as ‘moon’, ‘waterside’, ‘rain’, ‘stone well’ and ‘sky’, ‘chrysanthemums’, ‘blue moss’, ‘clouds’, ‘tiger’, ‘mountain’, and ‘unam(雲巖)’. As a result, I was able to confirm that the differences that appeared in their Korean poems Dosansibigok and Gosangugokga appear in the Chinese poems of both authors in the same or similar aspects. Among the works examined in this paper, there were cases where the differences in Chinese poetry were the same or similar to those in Korean poetry, and there were also cases where the differences in Chinese poetry could be explained by their ideological tendencies, although they were somewhat different from those in Korean poetry. If the works using the subjects of ‘moon’, ‘chrysanthemum’, ‘mountain’, ‘rain’, ‘stone well’ and ‘sky’, ‘blue moss’, and ‘unam(雲巖)’ belong to the former, then the works using the subjects of ‘waterside’, ‘clouds’, and ‘tiger’ belong to the latter. If we consider that the differences in the works of the two writers can be explained by their ideological tendencies, not to mention the former cases, but also the latter cases can be said to be largely consistent with the differences in Korean poetry.

A Study on the Criticism Recorded in Wolju Suchangrok of the Seokbuk Shin Gwang-su Family

CHAE Jee Soo | 2024, (50) | pp.209~234 | number of Cited : 0

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The Full Account of Dongyahwijip’s Story Modification and its Nature

Jung, Hwan Kuk | 2024, (50) | pp.235~270 | number of Cited : 0

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KJCKorea
Journal Central

Journal of Korean Literature 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.62

2024, Vol., No.50