조선후기 성 담론과 한문소설에 재현된 섹슈얼리티

Abstract

This paper examined how discourses of sexuality were constructed and how sexuality was represented in the novels written in Chinese letters in the 18th and 19th Chosun dynasty. The concerns and discussions on sexuality had been seen since the former Chosun dynasty, but it was only in the latter Chosun dynasty when these concerns and discussions of sexuality developed into the discourse of sexuality. This phenomenon was closely connected to historical circumstances such as the accelerated development of commerce, the flows and influences of Japanese and Chinese culture, and the development of city pleasures. The characteristics of discourses of sexuality in this period were as follows; first, the sexual desire between men and women was more positively recognised. Second, there were more concerns about female sexuality, as we can find in the increase and decrease of Yolnyojun(烈女傳). Third, discourse of other sexual orientations such as homosexuality began to be found. Finally, the Confucian controls on sexuality weakened. These discourses of sexuality were reflected in novels. Novels dealt sexuality as subject matters or theme. Scenes of sexual behaviour appeared and sexuality came to be the object of knowledge in novels. Bodies were more directly described and women's sexuality was in the foreground although it was seen as object. In the other side of the representations of women's sexuality, we can find the sort of consciousness that tends to see sexuality as the object of trade, rationalize the violent aspect of sexual desire, and turn sexuality into hierarchical structure. The subjects of representations of sexuality were generally male writers, although we can find some rare examples of female speakers. The representations of sexuality by male writers enlarged while women were still strongly constrained by Confucian ideology. Discourses on sexuality in the latter Chosun dynasty demonstrates that Confucian male subjects grew to be weakened and those process of discourse was made through seeing female as objects and others. This phenomenon helps us to understand how the premodern society came to be under deconstruction.