시조 율격론 난제

Abstract

The metrics of the sijo poetry has focused on finding the strict rule which can be applied to the various formal phenomenons of sijo poems. It has been the attempt to find the junction between the formal variety of sijo poems and the general poetic rule in them. Such attempts were made while neglecting the reality of the sijo genre and the essential characteristics of the metrics, and they hitherto caused the confusion regarding the sijo metrics. This paper investigated in chronological order the problems related to the metrics of sijo, which could give the platform for establishing an alternative understanding of the sijo metrics. In chapter2, the concept of the meter upon which to build this paper was reconsidered. This chapter investigated the reception of the concept of the western meter in Korean literary arena and specified that the meter is a kind of mechanical poetic rhythm, which is basically constructed by phonetical rules. In chapter3, the academic discussions about the sijo metrics, which could be classified into umboyul and umsuyul, were considered in chronological order. The umsuyul, which was supported by the scholars of the early twentieth century, was meaningful in that it penetrated the importance of the syllable in the sijo metrics. However, it lacked the specific rule to explain the sijo metrics, resulting in harsh criticism. Instead of umsuyul, umboyul was claimed as the general metrical rule of sijo poems, but in fact it was contradictory to the reality of sijo poems. The umboyul assumed that sijo could be scanned by feet, but such a scansion was hard to be realized. It also caused the misunderstanding of feet and meter. None of the two ways of understanding the sijo metrics is completely right or wrong. Therefore, what is necessary is to recognize the problems contained in both of them and to grope for an alternative sijo metrics. This paper was dedicated to this purpose.