기획논문: 소수자 문학으로서의 고전여성문학의 성격과 그 의미 /논평:이지하

Abstract

This article examined the characteristics and the significance of Classical Woman Literature from a minority group's perspective. The word of minority in this sense does not only carry a sense in number but also refers to groups subjected to social discrimination and exclusion. These groups have been marginalized by the majority for the reason that the groups do not conform to existing norms. In this regards, women in the Cho-sun dynasty era can be categorized as a minority group. The essential character of the minorities that are excluded from the power lays in their acts to create new values that is free from the regulation of the majority, and in their strength to resist against the power of it. Therefore, minority literature refers to the literature that the minority groups hold on and sustain rather than to the one written in the language used by the minority groups. Thus, minority literature takes on political characteristics. The literature composed by women in the Cho-sun dynasty era has been positioned out side of the hierarchy of the general genre, and thus it was not easily explained through the general esthetic categories. Such characteristics of women's literature during the Cho-sun era differs to a great extent from the mainstream-literature occupied mostly by the gentry, and such heterogeneity was taken by patriarchal men as something very strange. These characteristics signify women's literature as for overthrowing the patriarchal tradition and values. In this regards, it is expected that looking at the classical women's literature would be a significant attempt that engages 'the subject and the text of all kinds of literature' and enables solidarity among minority groups.