羅蕙錫의 초기 텍스트와 崔承九, 李光洙라는 컨텍스트

Abstract

This paper will discuss the intimate exchange of ideas between Na Hye-sok, Choi Seung-gu and Yi Gwang-su during Na’s studies in Tokyo, as well as investigating what agenda she was promoting while also specializing her writing, paying particular attention to her literary activity in <Hakjigwang> and its sister magazine <Yeojagye>. Specifically, I intend to look at the influences these men’s texts had on Na’s creative focus point in this period, her works on art and women. In order to accomplish this, in the 2nd chapter I will take a fresh look at 「The Ideal Wife(isangjeok buin)」, which thus far has been read through the lens of feminism, in the context of the new discussions on art found in <Hakjigwang> and regarding Na’s other works of the time, 「Gyeonghui」, 「To the Revitalized Girl」 etc. as supplementary to Na Hye-sok’s artistic views. I will also take a look at how Na Hye-sok’s understanding of art(beauty) is shown in her literary works, and how she resonates with and separates herself from the artistic sensibilities of the ‘ideal artist’ Choi Seung-gu. I confirmed that Na Hye-sok’s texts of that period, and the art theory being published in <Hakjigwang> showed tendencies of seeking out art as one of life’s imperative questions while making art the cornerstone of life and understanding art as something through which to maximize one’s satisfaction in life which correspond with Choi Seung-gu’s art theory. However, Na Hye-sok’s attempts to make life into art, specifically her attempts can be seen as those trying to bring art into the territory of women. In this way one can see through 「Miscellaneous Thoughts(japgam)」 how Na Hye-sok uses Choi Seung-gu’s writings while also monopolizing them through her own particular critical thought process. In the 3rd chapter, I focus on the prominent female consciousness in Na Hye-sok’s texts and how it corresponds to the importance of Joseon women’s lives and rights, and the problem of female enlightenment in Yi Gwang-su’s texts of the same period, as well as the wide berth of intertextuality to be found between the two’s texts. In particular, I analyse the narrative of Byeong-uk in 『Heartless(mujeong)』 and noticing the similarities reiterated in Na Hye-sok’s 「Gyeonghui」 and how this can be seen as Na Hye-sok continuing the Yi Gwang-su’s narrative while discussing new problematic issues. The results of this analysis show that even though 「Gyeonghui」 and 『Heartless』 have similarly focused narrative, when they arrive at the same conclusion, the point where Byeong-uk’s worries end are where Gyeonghui’s begin. To be specific, what sets 『Heartless』 and 「Gyeonghui」 apart is that suspicious and suffering Gyeonghui differs from Byeong-uk, who is an ideologue who iterates a simple and superficial platform saying that women are people too and should be allowed to learn, by being someone whose narrativized interiority is enlarged to the fullest and this difference is also were their most important literary results can be found. In addition to this, by focusing on the fact that Yeong-chae found it possible to live a new life by recreating her identity from being a gisaeng to that of an artist one can see that both stories are not only showing the image of a New Woman facing a feudalistic value system and reforming it to an independent individualistic one, but both stories also confirm that women embody a type of artist. The fact that, in accordance with the presentation in these two works, in art women were finally able to transcend the restrictions placed on them through traditional, feudalistic society by way of becoming self-aware through discovering that before they are someone’s wife or mother, they are a unique entity, an autonomous subject. This point of view is consistent with the artistic view found in Na Hye-sok’s early texts through which I attempted to shed new light upon particular elements related to a particular 1920s artistic education theory about Joseon women or the problem of women’s dress becoming more artistic or other such problems.