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The Subject and the Others in Loyalists' Love-songs for the King(忠臣戀主之詞)

  • Journal of Korean Literature
  • 2008, (18), pp.55-102
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

Mijeong Choi 1

1계명대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to interpret Loyalists' Love-songs for the King(忠臣戀主之詞) from the viewpoint of ‘the subject and the others’. These Love-songs have been written in traditions with the female speaker of the male servant, specially in this paper all of them exiled. The writers and their works interpreted in this paper are Cho wi's(梅溪 曺偉, 1454~1503) Manboonga<萬憤歌>, Jeong Ceol's(松江 鄭澈, 1536~1593) Samiingok(思美人曲), and Sok-miingok(續美人曲). Also, Chinese works Quyuan(屈原)'s Lisao<離騷> and others are interpreted as the originators of these works. In real life, all the writers were <a male; a governing classes; a Junzi(君子)>, on the other hand in their Loyalists' Love-songs, they disguised as <a female; a governed classes : a xiaoren(小人)> by the persona. The points of this paper are as below : The first point is to show the tradition of the Loyalists' Love-songs in Chosun. The speaker of Quyuan(屈原)'s Lisao<離騷> is male, which had been changed into female by Cho wi. This alternation had been made according to the changes of the classical scholar's role as a servant. The latter had been succeeded by Jeong Ceol, who perfected the Loyalists' Love-songs with a splendid performance. The second point is to pursue the question how deep and fully this unfamiliar, downfallen and literary situation could make the writers understand the others and could make them change their subject in their real life. In Sok-miingok(續美人曲), Jeong Ceol raised the problem of alienation that he must have experienced during his exile period. Although it was not enough for him hiding behind female persona to have the most precious right to give up his subject with his own will, his question in argument must be meaningful. However, he must have shown limits. He was born to be 'a Junzi(君子)' and he was in belief that he could go back to his pre-glorious days sooner or later. That's why he couldn't abandon his subject in order to give a warm reception to the others unconditionally.

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