1920-30년대 식민지 조선의 에스페란토 문학

Abstract

This study set out to examine the state of Esperanto literature, which was clearly a phenomenon in colonized Joseon in the 1920s and 1930s, and the literary directions it sought after. The vogue of Esperanto in colonial Joseon started with interest in literature written in the language. But there are no studies that shed light on the ways Esperanto literature was distributed and enjoyed in Korea probably because there is no suitable place for it in the literary classification system by the ethnic group and nation units since Esperanto is not a "foreign language" but a "common international language. Based on the languages that the readers were exposed to, there were three types of Esperanto literature distributed in Korea during the colonial days: 1) the type that was presented directly in Esperanto, 2) (with including the type that was presented both in Esperanto and Korean translation) the type that was presented in Korean translation. 1) Korean papers introduced Esperanto literature in full scale with no Korean translation. The Esperanto Movement highlighted the ideal of "one nation, two languages"(using the mother tongue in the nation and using Esperanto, the common language, in international exchanges). Introducing Esperanto literature in Korean papers with no Korean translation was considered as a symbolic act to fulfill the ideal. The literary works of other countries were "translated" in Esperanto and thus broke from the boundary of language and nationality, and they were delivered in the form of "world literature" to colonial Joseon. It was considered that Esperanto literature practiced the immediacy of the original work as it was, thus overcoming the translingual asymmetry or dynamic, ideological, and political asymmetry between the language to be translated and the one to translate. 2) There were cases in which Korean literature was translated in Esperanto or Esperanto literature in Korean. One of the special linguistic merits of Esperanto is "no unique idiomatic expressions." Translating a natural(ethnic) language in another natural(ethnic) language is moving from the "stereotyped ideas and expressions" of an ethnic group to those of another ethnic group. Esperanto, which is considered to reflect no such limitations of ethnic language, can depict universal emotions and ideas with no ethnic characteristics. The works of Korean literature selected to be translated in Esperanto, however, did not reflect the climate of Joseon already even in the dimension of Korean literature.