1920년대 학교 관련 아동서사 연구

Abstract

The most basic requirement for establishing children’s literature was the modern perception of children, and the school system is one factor that influenced the modern view of children. For this reason, this article first examines how school systems in our society have inspired the formation of the modern concept of children. Beliefs about children have changed greatly from 1895, when modern elementary education began, to the early 1920s, when the modern concept of children was visualized by Bang Jeonghwan. Early views of children regarded them as immature adults. Once the modern concept of children was formed, the development of children’s literature began in earnest. Because school greatly impacts the modern understanding of children, this article focuses on school-related children’s narratives. I present a list of school-related narratives and examine their flow. I demonstrate that school and the life of children in narratives have been closely connected throughout the years. Most school-related children’s narratives reveal that the biggest problem they were dealing with at the time was poverty. Children’s stories narrate three problems concerning school and poverty: 1) being out of school because of poverty, 2) studying hard despite poverty, and 3) being in a difficult situation in school because of poverty. In our society, the perception of children has grown alongside the development of the school system. Children became increasingly visible during the 1920s due to the expansion of elementary education, which led to the creation of children’s literature in earnest. Due to this origin, children’s literature gradually connected the life of children with school through the 1920s. The most pressing problem at this time was poverty. As mentioned above, school-related children's narratives show that children desire school despite this poverty. On the other hand, these narratives also show that poverty suppressed or distorted their desire.