해방 전 그림책과 관련한 논의와 그림책의 과도기적 양상

Abstract

This paper has peripherally covered the transitional trend of the picture-books during the pre-independence era and the debates on them. Unfortunately, there are some not entirely satisfactory parts due to the lack of evidence. During the 1930’s, the term ‘Picture-book’ along with what should be considered a ‘good’ picture-book has been discussed. With this, the transitional trend of the characteristics of the picture-books that progressed from the illustrations to the picture texts during the pre-independence era was examined. The term ‘good picture-books’ has been debated in the major daily newspaper and has been decided to be something that the ‘parents (would) read for their children’. At the time, there were numerous low quality picture-books sold in the market, and the poorly made picturebooks created solely for the entertainment of the children were also naturally criticized. For the selection of these books, it was recommended that the parents would read them prior to purchasing, and the ‘realistic’ form of the pictures within the picture-books during the early 1930’s transformed to something more imaginative for the children to experience during the mid-1930. Not only that, the idea that picture-books can be accessible even for adults displays that these picture-books came to resemble more modern picture-books. In the last 1930’s, the definition of picture-books once again expanded and transformed from something to be simply ‘read and seen’, to something that could be ‘utilized.’ “Cheap and overly colorful comic books and misprinted picture-books” can have negative effects on the children, and were suggested to be used as “picture folding-screen, decorations for a box, or used for handiworks.” However, during the 1940’s, the production of picture-books conforming to the Imperial Japan’s Greater East Asia plan began, and it became more difficult to find the picturebooks with suitable quality. Various children’s songs used with picture-text in the daily newspapers and the children’s magazines has been made public, and the new genre ‘picture children’s songs’ has been introduced. The debate on the realistic expressions that constituted the majority of the picture-books in the 1930’s came with the realistic expressions set to help guide the understanding of the children’s songs. Therefore, it is difficult to expect interaction between the text and pictures. However, some ‘picture children’s songs‘ exceeded the level of illustrations and presented the picture-texts embedded in the ’picture children’s songs.‘ Some typical picture-books, in the 1930’s, were 「A Beat-Up Shoe」 (Suk-Joong Yoon), 「That Face Drawn onto a Wall」(Bok-Jin Yoon, In-Sung Lee), 「A Firefly」(Seung-Han Kang), 「Spring Girl」 (Myung-Yoon Lee), 「Lullaby」(Goong-Rang Nam, Bong-Je Jun) and more. Suk-Joong Yoon’s 「A Beat-Up Shoe」which uses lifelike description on imaginative objects is geared towards children who are capable of animistic imagination, and 「That Face Drawn onto a Wall」 and 「Firefly」adopts a conversation onto a ‘picture children’s songs’ to further enhance and expose imagery. 「Spring Girl」and 「Lullaby」 maintains a psychological distance which allows the readers to imagine with freedom. The ‘picture children’s songs’ during the era, although their literary value is not so brilliant, can be considered as a novel attempt to comprehensive text of picture texts and children’s songs. Due to this, even if these attempts were not as successful, its values are recognizable. The anthology 『Babies’ Hill』by Hong-Eun Lim is a children’s book which includes his own writings that is constituted of picturebooks, children’s songs, children’s poems, and fairy tale stories. The cover page of 『Babies’ Hill』constitutes of personified forms of flowers, butterflies, and dragonflies, and its use of brilliantly bright color and personification must have been a pioneering role in the children’s books. The book also included other visual effects such as typography and pattern in the epilogue, table of contents, prologue, and body. This style was first attempted in 『Children’s Lifestyle』and can be said to have been completed in 『Babies’ Hill』. 『Babies’ Hill』 included 99 cuts of water colored pictures and pen sketch paintings in the form of picture-book illustrations. Also, in the 「Flower Village」, a ‘picture story’, demonstrates an interaction between text and picture, creating a new meaning of narration. ‘Babies’ Picture-Book’ is a single-paged picture-book for children which contributed to lower the average age level of target audiences. ‘Babies’ Picture-Book’, although it lacks interrelations between pictures from page to page, is recognizable for its picture texts for children to read. The ‘good picture-books’ debated before the independence, although slightly, brought development to Korean picture-books. The awareness of ‘children’ in the 1920’s expanded to the education of children in the 1930’s, and the picture-books were utilized by educated parents for educative purposes. However, even after these debates and developments, it is disappointing to see that these picture-books were never actually published in a form of a book. The publishing of the picture-books in a form of book only appeared after the transitional period post-independence that included the children’s books in the form of picture-books. A series from Chosun Children’s Literature Association, ‘Picture Hill’ and ‘Picture Story Book’ shows a transitional trend towards the publishing of picture-books in a form of book. In this research, the picture-books after the independence era were not examined. The ‘Picture Story Book’ after the independence era will be left for further research at a later time.