조선후기 소설에 나타난 여성의 信佛과 寺庵의 기능

Abstract

Women in Joseon Dynasty showed an interest in diverse religions. However, what had the greatest influence upon these people's life will need to be said to be Buddhism. This comes to be made clear in a sense that women are the major class of visiting temple, of making a prayer, and of praying. Women's religious actual condition is being naturally projected even in novels of the late Joseon period. This study aimed to examine one aspect of women's Buddhist faith in Joseon Dynasty through as which space the temple is accepted. As a result, the temple in the novel was revealed to be understood as a place of praying and of wishing a favorable change in fortune, and to be accepted such motive intensively in the introduction. Additionally in the aspect of narration and aesthetics, the characteristics in temple could be clarified. This was being clearly divided into the space of allowing misfortune to be avoided and a difficult situation to be escaped, and into the negative space of evildoer-typed characters gaining ground. Of course, given seeing with proportion, it can be said that there are much more cases of embodying temple positively. Unlike the policy of Eokbulsungyu(抑佛崇儒) that had been still so even in the late Joseon period, readers show that they still had favorable attitude toward Buddhism or temple. Especially, the more women in the appearing character led to revealing that there are many novels of accepting temple as the positive space. We can perhaps better see the difference ni technique and contents between the a novel written in classical Chinese and the Buddhist novel of women readers by examining how they deal with temple and hermitage. What marks the work extraordinary are the vividly recreated space of women's dearest wish, during which alienated man were called upon so often to lead to late Chosun in times of Buddhist oppression.