한국한문학과 프랑스 중세 문학에 나타난 動物觀과 윤리·사회적 의미로의 확장에 대한 대비적 고찰

Abstract

This study investigated the universality and generality of the Korean Medieval literature, by comparing the viewpoint of animals ․ consciousness in literary works of the Joseon Dynasty with the viewpoint of animals ․ consciousness in the Medieval French literature. In the case of the Joseon Dynasty, it set up Lee-Ik(李瀷) as the main subject of study. Because Lee-Ik, the representative Silhak scholar of the Joseon Dynasty, revealed that there was the own ethical and moral order in their ecology, through direct observation of animals. His Works with the viewpoint of animals and ethical consciousness have several levels. First, it is an demonstration for the fact that the ethical order is not the intrinsic value of human beings and the fact that it is a universal value which exists in animal worlds. Such consciousness is distinguished from the intention to generalize human ethics, especially order system of vertical relations by applying it to animals. Second, the understanding about animal's behavior and habits extends and applies to human affairs. However, Lee-Ik objectively recognized biological characteristics of animals, so he decisively rejected attempts to forcedly associate them with human morality. Third, it introduces the case of animals that express human ethics and moral values. Though not the same as humans, he thought that some animals had a similar levels of ethics. The viewpoint of animals in Medieval French literature is deeply related to Christian perspective or consciousness. The animals in Medieval French literature were used as a representation of negative phenomena such as the falsehood of the human world. At the same time, on the contrary, they were also used as a means of expressing the truth of the Heavenly Father[天主]. So, it could be seen that there existed a dual idea about animals. In Saint linguistic literature, the holy dog has become the motif of literature. It means that the writer applied or anticipated human ethics morality to animals. It is the bestiaires that best see the consciousness associated with the moral character of animals in Medieval French literature. For example, a wild boar is a symbol of evil and vice. The deer is a symbol of deceptive and the horns of the deer represent the Ten Commandments. It is the footsteps of the medieval consciousness that defines the inner ethics of the animal as an external aspect. There are about 40 animals in bestiaires, including imaginary animals as well as realistic animals. Each animal symbolizes Christ or the devil, moral or sinful behavior, good or evil deed. The divine and human isomorphis existed in medieval French literature shows a more social properties than that of beasts. Because it is expressed in the form of beasts, it reveals more intensely human animal characteristic and vice. That is, animal’s ferocity is more human than animal and accuses human’s faults. Moreover, 17th-century folktales shows the characteristic of intentionally reproving humans rather than criticizing animals. In French literature, as in Joseon’s literature, animal is used as representations of evil, deceit and barbarism, because they have no reason or ethics. It is also used as a powerful literary means to expose human evil that has lost reason and ethics. However, it is believed that some animals can communicate with humans through human speech and some animals symbolize a new world and some animals have noble pride and some animals have ethical order. In this respect, Medieval French and Joseon literature have different forms, but the same phenomenon can be said to attempt to give ethical moral values to animals or to take ethical moral lessons from animals.