전영택의 초기 소설 연구

Abstract

Young Taek Jun was the associate writer of magazine named "Changjo" which was the first coterie magazine in the history of modern Korean literature. At first, he was the same trend with the members of "Changjo" in that he stood against the enlightenment literature and popular romantic novels and he tried to write especially on the themes of 'self' and that of 'life'. However, he made his own unique world of literary works. he devoted himself to the pursuit of balance between literature and Christianity, that of relation-focused life and he also perceived human being's incompleteness. Even if he paid constant attention to 'the self' as other members of "Changjo" did, he knew that 'self' was in close relation with 'the other'. The writers of coterie magazine in the 1920's concentrated on the perception of 'the isolated self' separated both from society and from other people. What they sought for was originated from modern Cartes's reasonfocused thought. The writers had optimistic perspective that they could perceive and achieve 'the self' with the help of reason. In the light of that idea, 'the other' was totally excluded because 'the true self' could be adopted in the terms of dualism-true or false. However, Young Taek Jun was a little different from his contemporary writers in that he recognized the 'incompleteness' of the self despite the autonomy of the self. This viewpoint was originated from Christian thought on human being. Although human is a noble being who takes after God, also he is corrupted by his own original sin. Man's original sin in due consideration, it cannot be said that 'the self' is the only absolute. Even though a man seems inferior, 'I' must get along with 'him' as a noble being. As 'the self' and 'the other' interact in reciprocal influence, the relation with others is as crucial as one's own determination. In this Christian viewpoint, he tried to pursue the salvation of life by means of the balance between Christianity and literature. What he found as a solution is the way of true love. The love that Young Taek Jun sought for was different from other conceptions of love which his contemporary writers pursued as a conception and as an abstraction. That is to say, he sought after the love as a practical principle. Moreover, he purified the love of 'Philia' and that of 'Eros', whereas other writers ignored those loves. And he expanded the idea of love to the love of 'Agape' and showed the possibility of the love as a whole man. In short, he should be revaluated in the history of literature in that he paid attention to what his contemporary writers had ignored and he achieved his own literary world. As a rule, Jun's works have been legislatively valuated under the viewpoint of Humanism. Consequently, his contribution to Korean literature and his originality have been partially revealed. When I try to appreciate his importance in the history of literature, I find that he pursued the moderate attitude which avoided being radical and partial. This attitude was also related to the themes of Christian literature, 'whole man' , 'diverse form of love' , 'relation-focused life' in his works. Even if his earlier works pursued the balance between literature and Christianity or between self and other, his later works concentrated on Christianity and the other. Consequently, his later works made propaganda for Christianity and anti-communism. As he lost his equipoise in literature, he came to have some limitation on his works.