차상찬의 ‘어린이 역사 이야기’ 연구

Abstract

It is necessary to study on ‘modern historical stories for children’ not only in terms of children`s literature but also in order to examine the process of forming a modern writing style and to critically consider the principles of materials and descriptions of historical and cultural contents for children in use today. Cha Sang-chan, a representative writer of modern historical stories for children, published the same story of the same person at different times for the implied readers and revised the sentences each time. This study aims to help identify the characteristics of ‘modern historical stories for children’ by considering the traits of the genre and discourse method of historical stories for children written by Cha Sang-chan. Unlike fictional creations, Cha Sang-chan’s historical stories for children were written for the purpose of conveying historical knowledge and information, but his story was based on an unofficial history, which was passed down by the common people through an oral tradition. In addition, the story is about the heroes who defended his country against foreign aggression, as was dealt with in historical and biographical literature during the modern enlightenment period. But it focuses on the heroic deeds of a young man rather than the life story of a character. The historical stories for children by Cha Sang-chan were different from those written in a magazine for adults. He used Chinese characters only to focus on Korean, while writing it in a mixed style of Korean and Chinese characters in a magazine for adults. Most of them show signs of Chinese translations and record writings, in which he calls the readers “all of you” and uses “-ㅂ니다”, a polite sentence-closing ending, to enhance the effect of friendly speech. And he conveys events in the form of summary and explanation based on the anecdote of the character. In the late 1930s, this style of discourse was transformed into a modern style, far beyond a biographical style. This study is meaningful in that it has organized the research method of modern historical stories for children and grasped the tendency of Cha Sang-chan, the main writer, through comparison with other writers, setting the stage for overall research.