서정주와 발레리, 혹은 ‘동양적인 것’과 ‘서양적인 것’이라는 문제 : 서정주의 시론과 산문을 중심으로

Abstract

In the history of Korean poetry, Midang Seo Jeongju is regarded as a poet who represents notion of ‘tradition’ and ‘the Orient.’ Modernization of the Korean society started with Japanese colonization, and it underwent a dual process of a severe cut from the old tradition and the import and replication of the ‘Western ideas and things.’ Considering that munhak―literature in Korean―is a translation of literature, or discontinuation from tradition, it was inevitable that modern literary figures reacted keenly to Western ideas and things. In this sense, Korean history of modern literature had a contradictory nature as it accommodated ‘Western ideas and things,’ and at the same time implied criticism over the society formed by westernization and modernization. However, Seo Jeongju was different. From early on, he portrayed images of life in farming villages by fusing ‘Western ideas and things’ with vernacular ideas and things; after liberation of the country, he strongly resisted a literary trend that pursued ‘Western ideas and things’ by emphasizing intangible, philosophical aspects of tradition, the Orient, Shilla Dynasty, and Buddhism. However, these concepts, which have been customarily used in Korea's literary history, were not clearly defined, and instead used loosely as antipodes to ‘Western ideas and things.’ For this reason, in context of writing, identity of ‘Western ideas and things’ always remained obscure, as they also are merely antipodes to ‘Oriental ideas and things.’ Noting this, we investigated how ‘the Orient’ and ‘the West’ are understood and set apart by examining Seo Jeongju's essays on poetry and prose. His ideas on the genre of poetry heavily relied on those of Paul Valery, although research on this topic has yet to be undertaken. Indeed Seo Jeongju repeatedly quoted arguments of Valery whenever he tried to explain characteristics of poetry. However, Valery's thoughts on poetry and language are definitively western. Nevertheless, Seo Jeongju saw Valery as possessing universal perception of ‘poetry’, not necessary ‘Western ideas and things.’ In this paper, we pursued this idea, and attempted to elucidate whether Seo Jeongju's thoughts on poetry are indeed founded on Oriental ideas and things, and what ‘the Orient’ and ‘the West’ means in such discourses.