<유광전>의 구성적 특징과 그 의미에 대한 연구

Abstract

Yugwangjeon is a Korean manuscript of an ancient novel known to be created at the end of the 19th century. Since only the two different versions are handed down, the distribution seems to have been not very active. Yugwangjeon is a work that deals with the life of Yugwang. The story of Yugwang making significant contributions to the war is also included in the narrative. In previous studies, this work has been understood and valued from the perspective of heroic novel. However, elements of the heroic novel are not the essence of Yugwangjeon. Previous studies also found that this work raised the question of medieval values regarding women’s love, desire, and fidelity. This is not valid either. Yugwangjeon can be understood in a more meaningful work of literature in relation to the method of creation of ancient novels. Yugwangjeon can be summarized as the following: (1) the story of Yugwang’s contempt of the Buddha that makes him to be taken to the underworld and then being reincarnated, (2) a male figure disguising as a woman, tries to contact other women and eventually marries then, (3) a man obsessed with beautiful women being deceived by a fake fairy, (4) a woman who pretends to be devoted to her husband but turns out to be sexually abusive. Among these themes, (1) is a collection of stories about the underworld which is easily found in the existing narrative and (2) is a copy of a novel Guunmong. (3) is a hybrid copy of the novel Guunmong and the sexual corrupting typestory, and (4) uses the method of replacing female characters with the male characters in the original sexual corrupting typestories, parodying novels like Oyulanjeon or Baebijangjeon. In addition, a parody of existing novels was also found in the scene where Yugwang was marrying the three women. As such, Yugwangjeon is a work that utilizes existing stories such as tales, historical romance, Korean old novels, with using pastiche and parodies. By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, one can see that the use of existing narrative in creating novel was one of the important aspects and customs. Thus, this paper aims to reaffirm one aspect and practice of the creation of the novel Yugwangjeon.