택당 이식 문학비평 연구

Abstract

Taekdang Yi Sik has been referred to as an outstanding official-literatus and also as one of the Four Masters of Sino-Korean literature of the mid-Chosun period. This essay investigates the originality of his literary criticism, based on close reading of his critical essays. For this purpose, I focus on the thirty-four pieces of his literary criticism, which are prefaces and postfaces dedicated to other authors’ volumes. It has been said that Yi’s literary criticism appreciates mainly classical literature of the Tang and Song dynasties. However, his literary criticism should be defined as the criticism that raises a question on what classical literature is in facto and integrates different trends and theories of literary history. His standard of evaluation is whether an author’s literature is based both on Confucian classical studies and on East-Asian classical literature. In terms of this objective criterion, he transcends the controversial arguments of his contemporary literary cliques, the different stances of political parties, and the demarcation between East-Asian classical literature and national literature. In addition, the literary criticism of Taekdang Yi Sik takes on the characteristics of ethical criticism, which represents the personality both of author and of literary critic. Yi emphasizes the unity of work of art and its author. And, from the depth of criticism, he also expresses rhetorically the humble reflection on the critic himself, who is reading other people’s precious works.