적격 비틀기 ― 『여용국전』과 『머리 타래의 강탈』의 비교 연구 ―

Abstract

It is not so digressed a diagnosis to say that the keyword of both Korean and English literary world in the eighteenth century was the classic code. Korean writers of that age and their predecessors indulged themselves in the oriental classic works ,centered in the traditional Chinese classical ones. The main concerns of the neo-classicists in England were focused in keeping the traditional code of the Greek-Roman classics and following their themes and imitating ways of writing in accord with Horace's Ars Poetica. As we know well, the key word of Ars Poetica is decorum , and in accordance with decorum principle, writing was required to be polished, rational, conventional, and moderate. And the revival or adaptation of oriental classic taste and style is no other than the social code of the contemporary Korean writers of the 18th century. The heart of the decorum of writing is the accordance of the subject, theme, and style, and ,for example, high-class literature should be written in the grand or polished style, and comedy or low literature in low style. It is surprising and interesting that we can find two cases of successful decorum distorting in Korea and England in such a traditional 18th century as there is no room for the outsider , or the creative writing. Yeoyonggukjeon tried to deal the low subjects in the grand style called gundam( means battle) novels. It personified or dramatized the cosmetics as generals and high officials who commanded the battles with the filths ,lice, and tartars on the woman's face country. Due to the distorted decorum we forget the cosmetics and fall into the story and the battle. Even though this novel intended a satire, it was concealed and fused into the story, and so the author could hint his desire without fear to be scolded by the ruler. It is the triumph of the style and the decorum distorting. The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope is the model case of the distorted decorum called mock-heroics or mock-epics. It deals a trivial episode of a rape of the lock by a baron with a grand epic style. if it had been written in comic or low style, it would have been an obscure comedy or a burlesque work. But the work which had been written to " make a jest of the episode and laugh them together again" brought Pope universal fame and the name of the heroine Arabella immortal. The Rape of the Lock was also a triumph of the style and decorum distorting. We can say the decorum distorting of those two cases contributed to the diversifying of writing and to open wide the horizon of literature.