李光洙가 李寶鏡이나 ‘외배’이던 시절 - 韓國語 글쓰기의 한 기원에 대하여-

Abstract

This paper is the review of transitional Korean Writing from 1908 to 1910s, focusing on Yi Kwang-su’s works, published under Yi Bo-kyeong or the pen name, a Sole Boat. From his late teens, as a result of practicing Korean-Chinese writing skills including Classical Chinese rhetorics, he can publish some articles in journals of Korean abroad students association in Japan such as Taegeukhakbo and Daehanheunghakbo, that have editing directions limited by Classical Chinese tradition. In these articles under his real name, Yi Bo-kyeong, he demonstrates rhetorics similar to Sin Chae-ho, the representative writer of Korean-Chinese mixed scripts in Enlightenment era. With the inauguration of Choe Nam-seon’s Sinmungwan, the media, liberated from Classical-Chinese rhetorics, such as Sonyeon and Cheongchun are provided to Yi and he can exhibit new Korean writing showing vivid inner-self and trivial every day lives. His practice of new Korean writing in Sonyeon and Cheongchun is synthesized in Mujeong, the milestone of Korean literary history. However, the outcome of Mujeong instantly transforms into Minjokgaejoron’s absence of alternatives and this paper attempts to offer the clue to this transformation through the review of re-writing Heosaengjeon, the significant Korean classic, which Yi should treasure as the self-proclaimed patriot.