‘문필 비유’의 함의와 이상 문학의 본질

Abstract

Yi Sang gave the reader an intellectual pleasure by using the terms of writing and publishing figuratively. Such a figure can be called ‘a Stationery Metaphor’. This metaphor refers to ‘a metaphor for the use of symbols, tools, or experiences related to writing activities’. This metaphor, which was used intensively by Yi Sang, is a new method that has rarely been tried in Korean literature and has impressed readers with a novel and strong impression. This metaphor was largely influenced by the Japanese translation(Jeonwonsuchub 田園手帖) of Jules Renard’s Histoires Naturelle. a Stationery Metaphor started out as a ‘holy metaphor’ linked to transcendent beings. The analogy of ‘the world = the book of God’ originated from the rhetoric of the Catholic Church and became common since the Middle Ages. In Korea, the classic form of literary metaphor is also a sacred metaphor, an example of which is the metaphor of “heart = writing brush” in Hyangga ‘Yegyeongjebulga’. It can be confirmed that the metaphor was used as a sacred metaphor in all parts of the East and the West before modern times. However, as the age of God passes and becomes modern, the metaphor gradually moves down from the sacredness to the dimension of humanity. The secularization of such a metaphor is consistent with the historical development in securing aesthetic autonomy in order to gain literary independence from the outside world of literature such as religion, philosophy, and politics. This is why society and thought have disappeared from J. Renard’s work. The complete framework of the metaphor serves as an aesthetic fence that can’t get in the way of any interference from the outside world. However, the metaphor of modernism is limited in that it chose a surface, not a depth. a Stationery Metaphor, which appears in Yi Sang s literature, has two levels. One is the stratum of the ‘Sanchonyeojeong(산 촌여정)’, which was written in the process of making Renard s parable his own, which emphasizes surface mechanical accuracy, intellectual clarity, and sensual freshness. The other is the hierarchy shown in works such as ‘Haengro(행로)’. which goes beyond mechanical consistency and melts at some depths - one’s real life and world perception - into a metaphor. In Yi Sang’s work, the latter appears to be the dominant rhetoric. This has merit in that it does not eliminate others(transcendent and metaphysical beings) that cannot be clearly explained by reason and intellect for the mechanical and formal completeness of rhetoric. This is where the modernism of Yi Sang and that of Renard and Kim Gwang-gyun(Korean imagist poet) are different. Why was Yi Sang’s metaphor able to rise to a three-dimensional and profound level without staying in Renard’s flat and mechanical rhetoric that prevailed in his day? The reason may be linked to the abyss or nature of his literature. In conclusion, it is ‘a tenacious meta-sense for modernity’. In other words, it is an intense agony not to be trapped in modernity but to grasp its limitations and overcome them.