조선 후기 문학과 회화 속 ‘여협(女俠)’ 형상과 그 의미

Abstract

This study explored how Women's chivalry[女俠] of the late Joseon Dynasty were embodied in literature and painting with men as the main group, and examined their commonalities and differences. The yearning for Women's chivalry was a cultural phenomenon among men in the late Joseon Dynasty. In Ahn Seok-kyung's ‘The Sword Girl[劍女]’ and Im mae's ‘The female chivalrous[女俠]’, the main characters of the women's chivalry were prominent, and at the same time, they were painted repeatedly by Yoon Doo-seo, Lee Jae-kwan, Kim Hong-do, and Baek Eun-bae. Literature describing Women's chivalry represent women's bodies practicing chivalrous in time, with women's male attire, revenge, and polishing processes revealed in grammar, but paintings are fantastically captured with women's aesthetic bodies lightly flying in the air. This means that while women's chivalry is woven in a way that resonates with the actual women's association of the time and acquires sufficient ideological justification and probability in literature, while painting is freely created from it in a fantastic direction. This difference when the same theme of Women's chivalry is embodied in literature and painting, and two art genres clearly stems from the qualities of the two media. In common in literature and painting, the existence of female chivalry exist as objects of men's gaze, but such gaze is expressed in a more starkly different direction depending on the medium. In addition, in both literature and painting, the swords were appeared as the main weapon. The women's chivalry and the swords have the similarity, because both of them can recognizing the owner's true value, and only can be worked for their owners. therefore it is in line with the nature of the women's chivalry who collaborate for male owners.