신체장애에 대한 조선후기 문인의 인식과 형상화

Abstract

The present paper examines the relations between the late Joseon writers’ awareness of physical disabilities and their writing; it explores the awareness of physical disabilities in major works of writing and the context of the description of physical disabilities as well as the method of imagery. Following an ancient statute, subjects of the dynasty who had physical disabilities were considered to be the ones who were in need of special social ‘care’ by arranging their livelihood so that they can lead their lives independently. Evidences of ‘benevolent ruling (仁政)’ for people with physical disabilities to embrace their exceptional situations within the system, such as social production, application of the law, and performance of the rules of decorum, can be observed in the writings from the late Joseon period. This was the result of compassion and humanistic sympathy towards people with physical disabilities who face social discrimination and impoverished reality as well as a feeling of solidarity for the finitude of the physical body acting upon the principle of realistic governance. In the 17th to 19th century Joseon dynasty writings by literati, it was comparatively difficult to find direct descriptions or evaluations of people with physical disabilities. The writings from this period have the characteristic of using physical disabilities as metaphors or symbolisms within the context of humility and introspection as well as in comparison to incompleteness. Overall, the writers seem to have looked at being without disabilities and having disabilities in terms of superiority and inferiority. As such, physical disabilities were mostly used in negative connotations; however, some works highlighted a perspective of opposing the discrimination for physical disabilities or assigned paradoxical symbolism to physical disabilities. In writings that used physical disabilities in the reality of oneself or others as the subject matter, physical disabilities had a tendency to be a mechanism that urged a change in the attitude towards life through introspection. Especially, through the two writers of Bak Ji-won and Jo Su-sam who showed new perspectives by breaking the typical writing methods and writer consciousness, the present paper explored the various layers of awareness of late Joseon literati for physical disabilities and their methods of expression. The writings of Bak Ji-won viewed physical disabilities as ‘differences’ rather than superiority and inferiority and criticized the atmosphere at the time in which the discriminatory gaze towards physical disabilities was reflected in the methods of expression with the attitude of avoiding direct discussion of physical disabilities. Furthermore, the writings of Jo Su-sam, from the Jungin (Intermediary; 中人) class in society, which illustrate the lives of peripheral individuals who had been overlooked, were significant for depicting new forms of human and humanity by including people with physical disabilities, in the new methods of writing biographies in the late Joseon dynasty. However, at the same time, his writings also projected an idealized image of the subject of the dynasty who continued their designated duties, showing the otherization of physical disabilities by literati.