19세기 말 H.G. 웰스 장편 과학소설에 나타난 과학자의 초상

Abstract

In modern Korean literature, Herbert George Wells (1866~1946) received attention as a political and social thinker. On the other hand, his full-length science fiction was not translated properly. Why was Wells' science fiction not actively accepted in modern Korean literature? In this article, the reason was not found in modern science and education in Korea, but in Wells' full-length science fiction. This article analyzed the scientists in Wells' long-length scientific novels, "Time Machine" (1895), "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1896), "Invisible Man" (1897), and "Space War of Worlds" (1898). As a result, three conditions of scientists at the end of the 19th century were found. They had a history of studying science with 'academic', a laboratory that could realize it, and systematic scientific knowledge (evolution theory). They control and change objects in the laboratory based on scientific knowledge to create the form of power they want. In the 1920s and 30s, when Wells' science fiction was first introduced to Korea, the characters of modern Korean novels are described as an area where "invention" is more possible than "experiment." Wells' emergence as a political thinker in modern Korean literature in the 1920s and 1930s may have been based on the political challenges and solutions faced by colonial Joseon, but prior to that, scientific research was not established and scientific knowledge was not widely distributed. Wells' science novels began to be fully translated around the 1960s, and even if they were translated into modern Korean literature, there would have been limitations in fully accepting the scientific principles applied to the work. Although the power of science was recognized, the understanding of novels to which scientific theory was applied is bound to be incomplete due to the lack of laboratories and the limitation of scientific knowledge as conditions for utilizing it. Wells' analysis and understanding of scientists in science fiction specifically show the fall between modern Korean literary circles and Western civilization in the 1920s and 30s.