5・4운동 시기 아동문학과 엽성도(葉聖陶) 동화「허수아비」 속 세 여인 캐릭터 의미 연구

Abstract

This paper aimed to study <children’s literature during the May 4th Movement and the meanings of three women’s characters in Ye Sheng Tao’s fairy tale 「Scarecrow」>. For this study, firstly, the period of the May 4th Movement and children’s literature during the period were considered. The May 4th Movement promoted the birth of Chinese modern literature directly and Chinese modern children’s literature started in earnest from this time, at the same time. Chinese writers of children’s literature founded a “literature research society” in this period and Ye Sheng Tao is a representative writer. In addition, the active writing activities of the literature research society members during the May 4th Movement were pivotal in Chinese modern children’s literature and highly influenced the formation of Chinese modern children’s literature. Secondly, the meanings of three women’s characters in 「Scarecrow」 were analyzed. As a result, it was revealed that the first story about an old female farmer refers to the realistic problem of Chinese farming villages of those days. Especially, the funeral culture full of empty formalities and vanity and the consciousness of farmers not to form are representative of the problems. The second story about a woman and her daughter in a fishing village focuses on the child living with them, instead of the woman and her daughter. The woman and her daughter in a fishing village don’t give anything to the hungry child. They even ladle out cold water for the child crying in hunger and the child catches a severe cold. This demonstrates that the Chinese government was incompetent and didn’t do anything for children in those days. In other words, the story about a woman and her daughter show children’s issue in China. The third story is about a woman suiciding. This is associated with the human rights issue to regard women as slaves in the Chinese feudalistic bad convention. 「Scarecrow」 of Ye Sheng Tao was written in 1922 three years after the May 4th Movement of 1919. These events seen by the scarecrow in 「Scarecrow」 are not merely an episode of the fairy tale. These explain the issue of farming villages, the issue of children and the human rights issue of women in China of the times. The scarecrow falling down, because he cannot do anything even after witnessing the issues is Ye Sheng Tao himself that was conscious of the realistic problems, but could do nothing and was in agony. In other words, the scarecrow is the portrait of Ye Sheng Tao, an intellectual agonizing.