『임호은전』의 공간 구성과 그 미학적 특징

Abstract

The main character of Imhoeunjeon is a "hero on the road." He suffers hardship on the road, earns glory on the road, and finds his good match on the road. The "hero on the road" is embodied as the centrifugal and centripetal space systems, which form the space structure in classical novels, support him. The centrifugal and centripetal space systems appear in Parts 1 and 2, respectively. These space systems are ruled by sacred filial piety ethics and self-abnegating loyalty ethics, respectively. Different space systems naturally lead to different space description methods. Part 1 implements a "montage strategy," depending on the methods of tracing the characters, whereas Part 2 carries out a "skipping strategy," resorting to a method of recalling a space. The "montage strategy" and "skipping strategy" combine each other and establish a logic that "Im Ho-eun, the hero of ethics, solves the social structural contradictions." In this sense, spatial organization has two aesthetic features, which are tragic beauty manifested in the patterns of reacting to characters in the space and sublime beauty manifested in the patterns of creating an environment in the space.