최송설당 문학연구

Abstract

Songseolcdang(1855-1939) was born as a descendant of yangban (the aristocratic class) who fell involved in a conspiracy and lived at the end of the Chosun Dynasty and in the period of modernization. In the period when the dynasty fell and tradition and modem times crossed each other, she overcame the birth limitations as a descendant of a traitor, got out of the traditional frame given to the women of the time, successfully rose in fhe world and gained fame, and left the traces of arousing one's attention in Korean literary history by publishing her personal collection of works in her later years. At the age of over forty she was allowed to enter and leave court and granted the pen name of 'Songseoldang' by King Gojong. And she made a wide exchange with the social leadership as well as men of an influential family in the time. In her later years, to erect a private school she returned to the society the enormous property that she had collected during life. From what viewpoint will we see her dynamic lifs and attitude toward life as a woman that were rare in the time? They can multilaterally be interpreted as a change of traditional ideology and a section of the modem consciousness at the turning point spread widely in the society at that time." "Songseoldang's Collection" was published in the year 1922 similar to the period when the magazines of "Pyehu" and "Baekjo" were launched. It was issued for the purpose of accepting changed environmait and arranging herself in accordance with it feeling a sense of achievement as well as chewing over the past looking back after achieving a purpose. It was exceptional compared to the existing publication of a collection of works which had attached importance to worshipping ancestors and lineage. Of course, it included the contents about her family such as the history of her family reinstated and a Confucian shrine arranged, but was much intended to highlight her personal administration. It is the publication the author planned to publish in person in her lifetime to issue it The point can be seen as its individuality and as the modem operation of writing socioculturally. It is significant beyond a collection of works that a person plans and publishes during her lifetime with the purpose of informing the world of it. For the works carried in the collection, exploring Chinese poems(whose number is mare than two hundred and forty with hundred and sixty-seven titles) centering on contents and Gasa(the narrative poems with forty-nine titles)centering on forms showed that the author's perspective and values shown in the poems are very calm, open-hearted and philosophical. And great weight placed on autobiographic poems showed that it was a collection of poems accompanying a clear sense of purpose. The external characteristics of her works can be said to involve her loyalty from a sense of reality and a sense of gratitude and her unusual love for her family and parents. The trace can be found that her form of speech and writing trend was affected by the Sajo in the column 'Trend' of a newspaper called Gasa of the Enlightenment Furthermore, judging from the author herself carrying her works under the name of 'speech and writing trend', I cannot affirm that she was not affected by the Gasa. However, she did not have any forms or contents of the poems in the Enlightenment and much removed the formal or contents of the existing typical Gasa written about women's life in Chosun. Also, her Gasa is characterized by monomorphism of twenty lines or less in thirty-nine titles among forty-nine titles, but cannot be said not to be Gasa because it satisfies the formal extension of the Gasa 'realizing the rule of versification with tetratone and tetrameter unlimited in the number of lines'. The special form of her Gasa can be understood from its characteristics of genre and from the viewpoint of the theory of communication. The author can be seen as having hoped that her own collection of works would also be read by the women in the families of the gentry. She who became a nurse of King Youngchin in two years after she came up to Seoul had lived in court for over ten years. After she left the court, she had great wealth and power. She was fully envied and suspected by those around her. She had probably needed her excuse to put the suspicion to sleep, In such situation, the author can be seen as having planned a collection of works and having chosen the gasa that could be written in speech and writing readable to women for a purpose. However, exploring her Chinese poems of the same name and different forms and her speech and writing trend showed that the trend as if to put sentential meaning on the rule of the four tones was not created only with the intention of considering the readers not understanding the poems, It was because many works expressed different worlds of work despite using the same Mes and materials. Also, some works of revealing the general characteristics of the poems more in Gasa and rather expressing them narratively reflected the author's experimental sense. "Songseoldang's Collection" expressed a sense of self-realization, which identifying her family, filial piety and a sense of achievement speak for. Finally, a sense of family and a sense of filial piety were the inevitable calling that had to be overcome in the process of self-realization. Through it she succeeded in making the existence as the object in the society the subject Identifying her family and filial piety were expressed as the author's sense of achievement for acquiring existential subjectivity eventually incorporating her as a complete member into the system. Her social senses were expressed as gratitude to King Gojong and his second wife who reinstated her own family, and as patriotism and a sense of compassion. She did not directly express awareness of loyalty or anti-Japanese consciousness but expressed it indirectly and carefully in gratitude and requital of kindness, Patriotism and a sense of compassion, It is difficult to exclude the possibility that the social position as a court lady who observed japanese pillage in a field at that time functioned as a constraint Women's consciousness by her was expressed as a sense of original sin for her birth as a woman despite bearing the heavy responsibility for identifying her family, and the grief for it was expressed transformed into a sense of envying man. The uneasy sexual consciousness was also transformed into virilism or a sense of the gentry. Modem consciousness was expressed as human equality and material-oriented capital consciousness, civilization and woild consciousness, and identity established. Awareness of caPital can be read as the character establishing itself in her unconsciousness from early to attain the purpose of her superficial life. If the women of the time aimed unconsciously at being satisfied with making the object the subject or envying man, establishing her identity can be seen as expressing the firm will she acquired achieving something inpossible as a woman. Thus, the value of studying her collection can be found in that it is a peculiar result of formalizing literanly the social reality of the time where one woman who could not become a complete sodal member had no choice but to become virile in a difficult and long journey of seeking self overcoming the destruction of her family and the shackles of the age. The following three facts can be known through her literature. One is that her life and consciousness on opposed lines show the duality of practicing modem consciousness through regressing to tradition, It provides a new index to what we are like in modem times biased against the theory of transplant literature of a colonial historical view. Another is that her creation of Gasa affected by modem modes did not deviate from traditional literary spirit but implemented a new mode of Gasa The third is that "Songsuldang's Collection"assumes the character of modem publication. The collection will be said to be greatly valuable and significant also in that it pursued new idea.