Problems of Tradition on Literature, Prose and Literary History in Korean Modern Literature
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
외국어초록(Foreign language abstracts) ・ 319 <Foreign language abstracts> Problems of Tradition on Literature, Prose and Literary History in Korean Modern Literature Hwang, Jae-moon (Seoul National University) Key words : Yi Kwang-su, Yi Tae-joon, Im Hwa, tradition of the literature, Korean Classical Literature, What is the Literature, the lecture on the prose, the Introduction to the history of new literature. In this paper, I studied on ways of Korean modern literary theory to deal with its literary tradition. In general, the modern literature would be established throughout criticizing and overcoming the classical literature. So I would like to scrutinize that process in Korea from this study. Yi Kwang-su, the novelist often called one of builders of Korean modern literature, wrote the an introduction to literature "What is the Literature" in 1916. In that work, he excluded the Korean classical literature in the discussion of the literary theory. In fact he had denied the existence of Korean classical literature, and he tried to build up the genuine literature in the wasteland of the literature. But his these efforts was not worthy of highly estimation because it had been the result without the effort of the overcoming the previous literature. Yi Tae-joon wrote "the lecture on the prose" in 1940. In this text, he 320 ・ 한국학논집(제43집) didn't exclude the Korean classical literature unlike Yi Kwang-su. Instead of that, he had highly estimated some classical prose works. But he limited the estimation in the boundary of the "classical meaning", so he didn't accept those classical prose works in his discussion of elements of good prose. So in a sense the result was not different from the work of Yi Kwang-su. Im Hwa, a poet and critic on the literature, wrote a brief literary history, the Introduction to the history of new literature. On account of the opinion that he expressed in that work, his views on Korean literature was often called transplant theory. But his conclusion was not produced from the premise that premodern Korea had not any literary works. In fact he had relatively flexible attitude to the tradition of Korean literature, so he acknowledged the Korean literature in Chinese character as a part of Korean literature. He only suggested his opinion about the phenomenon of Korean 'new' literature. But he also produced a similar result in this topic, it can be interpreted by the outcome of his own attitude to the classical literature, selection and stratification of classical literary genres. In conclusion, the task of the criticizing and overcoming the classical literature was not properly performed in the time of establishing the modern literature in Korea. So these tasks were remained to present-day in a sense. 외국어초록(Foreign language abstracts) ・ 321 A Study on Shin Chaeho's Historical Studies - between Late Choson Literati and the Contemporary Historians - Bae, Woo-sung (University of Seoul) Key words : Shin Chaeho, Tangun, Euljimunduk, An,Jeongbok, Lee, Jonghwi, Joongwha Shin Chaeho, the journalist and independent activist, is well known as the first modern historian in Korea. It is said that he read the books and articles, written by Liang Qi Chao who was also one of the most famous literati in modern China, and became to know the theory of the social evolution and nationalism, and the methodology of modern history as well. Modern history means the discontinuation with the traditional history, but this study is based upon the assumption that we may have the stereotype on the discontinuation between traditional history and the modern history in terms of the methodology and the style. Some former studies already pointed out the fact that Shin Chaeho had developed his argument under the influence of Lee, Jongwhi, who was the traditional historian in 19th century in Korea, but it is still uncertain if they shared the same point of view on the ancient history. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to know what kind of traditional knowledge was shared, discontinued, reinterpreted, and even distorted by Shin Chaeho, and what kind of possibility we have in this 21th century. What he understood at that time was that Korean people used the Chinese Character for a long time, and because of that foreign character, Korean people became more dependent. In his opinion, it was 322 ・ 한국학논집(제43집) a natural phenomenon that Shin, Kison, the modern Confucian made a decision to accept the Japanese Asian strategy. Some historians, including Han, Backgyum, An, Jeongbok, Han, Chiyoon, Han, Jinseo, Lee Jong whi, and their books were highly estimated, though he always condemned the Choson literati regarding the dependency. He thought that these traditional scholars were talented in the history field and developed their own linguistic methodology, and even emphasized the importance of the broad territory of the Korean ancient dynasty. We can say that Choson literati and Shin Chaeho shared the practical philosophy, though we still have to pay close attention to say that Shin Chaeho succeeded the traditional history, because he reinterpreted and even distorted the context of the historical fact. The conclusion of this study is that we need to remember the tradition of the practical philosophy no matter how different the contents of the philosophy are. The Reexamination of the Assessment on Traditional History by National History - Focusing on Shin Chae Ho(신채호) and Baek Nam Woon(백남운) - Lee, Yun-gap (Keimyung University) Key words: National history, Traditional history, Nationalism, Materialistic view of history, The formation of the subjects in history This study has reexamined the assessment on traditional history by 외국어초록(Foreign language abstracts) ・ 323 modern national history, and sheds new light on traditional history in its academic performance. Shin Chae Ho and Baek Nam Woon, the pioneers of modern national history were the first people that assessed the Korean traditional history in its academic performance. They studied our history as a way of resisting against Japanese Imperialism in the midst of the Japan rationalized its occupation of Chosun by force with the colonial view of history and of spurring assimilation policy. And that's why they made it a goal of studying history to establish a historical science which enable to infuse national consciousness and class consciousness into Chosun people to be the subjects of national liberation and social liberation. Their assessment on traditional history was carried out from such views. Although their assessments on traditional history were different in perspectives and contents, they had something in common that they have achieved too little academic performance to pass down as a modern national history, except for the use as historical records. The assessment of Shin Chae Ho and Baek Nam Woon on traditional history affected the people studying history in the later generation as greatly as their studies on history. However, their assessment on the academic performance and studies of traditional history could hardly be considered fully objective. Because of the limit of national perspectives and historical materialism, which were their assessment scales, to be a criteria for the appraisal of studies. Besides, the traditional history have already achieved a high degree of academic achievement to be worthy even by the criteria for modern history unlike their appraisal. One of the reasons this article takes note of traditional history in need of reexamination is its exploration into the formation of the subjects in history who will realize universal values and morals was much deeper 324 ・ 한국학논집(제43집) than modern history in the practicality of history. Traditional history researched far deeper than modern history in humanistic theory of education which forms people as the subjects of history. Traditional history has been pursuing the practicality aiming to realize integrated doer's morality and social rationality. Unlike this, modern history has been putting social problems in the core and pursued the practicality in the ways of seeking for the solution to its contradiction like that to national and class problems. In modern history, the groups seeking for particular interest, that is, particular interest groups of classes or stratum played the roles of history in a contradictory relationship, and the practicality issues were dealt with through the debates related to its factional interests. However, the class interests lead people only to the way to be faithful to factional interests making it difficult to pursue general rationality. Modern history is facing a crisis of contradicting itself due to such limit of the grounds for turning society into human, in other words, due to such limit of criteria for solving social contradiction. In conclusion, the academic performance of traditional history which inquired the issues to form the subjects in history could be used for solving this crisis as a very significant intellectual asset. A Research on the Construction of Compatibility of Loyalty and Truth Park, Hong-sik (Daegu Haany University) Key words: Korean traditional philosophy, language, Hangeul, Chinese 외국어초록(Foreign language abstracts) ・ 325 writing, modern, premodern, compatibility, communication, conceptual words This research aims to explore the most important issue of bridging the severed academic relations between premodern and modern Korean traditional philosophy. There remain obstacles to academic communications of premodern and modern Korean traditional philosophy in spite of the existing studies on the philosophy. This research makes emphasis on these problems. Dae-Yong Hong (大容 洪, 1731-1783), a philosopher and thinker in the Joseon, said, "Loyalty(道義) in the world is eternal(天下之義理無 窮)." The notion of "Loyalty" had a meaning of 'morality 道義)' in those days, but it was used as a meaning more similar to that of 'truth (眞理)' used today. The title of this research connotes the symbolic meaning that premodern and modern Korean traditional philosophy can communicate each other not until the notion of 'loyalty' that symbolizes the premodern academic purpose becomes compatible with the notion of 'truth' that embodies the modern academic purpose.