사회진화론의 수용과 근대시로의 전환

Abstract

Social Darwinism, which provided an ideological basis for East Asian modernity in around 1900s, played a vital role in establishing Korean literature as a sub-category within a range of modern studies. As for the verse, in particular, a phenomenon of 'reconstruction' occurred in which the genre of traditional Korean sigas, coming in contact with new cultural trends, began to be integrated as a style of verse. Previously sigas were written individually. In the midst of such tendency, Social Darwinism was incorporated into the theory of the Enlightenment literature, creating a unique genre called 'shinchesi', the forms of which offer a wide opportunities for experiments. Despite its limitations as politically-biased verses in general, the Enlightenment literature provided a variety of possibilities in terms of its forms. Therefore, it is suggested that the ideological basis for modern literature lies under the influence of Social Darwinism, the core principle of the theory of civilization. From the sun to a boy, the verse known as the very first modern poem in Korea, shows a trial to express the theory of the Enlightenment literature into a new form of verse, and represents a cultural product connected with cultural conditions of the times rather than an internal product formed within literature itself. Particularly, the source of the theme, or the expression of the ideological Enlightenment, can be traced to Social Darwinism. Furthermore, the surge of literary works based on art for art's sake cannot be analyzed simply as a literary movement. Rather, it can be translated into a phenomenon resulted from modernity, which occurred because Social Darwinism was faced with the challenges of the modern ideologies including Socialism due to the political and cultural phenomena of the times.