백화 양건식의 현대적 문예관

Abstract

Baek-hwa Yang Geon-sik was a sophisticated reader, let alone a novelist and a predecessor of Chinese literature. He was a sharp critic and original novelist who cultivated his literary attainments through his relatively modern hobby of reading and book collection. He revealed the individuality of figures through the concrete hobbies in <Sad Contradiction>, in which his criticism on interest-directed new-style popular novels was implied. The reason that the new-style novels were corrupted was that there were oppression of Japanese colonialists against the speech and press and the capitalistic distribution structure of the then publication market. The criticism on the latter was well described in <Gwigeorae>. Yang Geon-sik's experimental novels pursued a new horizon of their theme and composition while succeeding the strengths of new-style novels. His critical writing <Welcome to a Chun-won's novel> made the literary discourse become an independent field in the cultural discourse that had been focused too much on the enlightenment, by awakening the aesthetic pleasure and compositional techniques, a literary style. While participating in the Joint Criticism Meeting of <Joseon mundan (Korean Literary World)>, he was active in the camp of nationalist literature together with Choi Nam-sun, Lee Gwang-su, Yeom Sang-seop, but he did not actively participate in pro-Japanese activities. By pursuing a literature of contemplation, he attempted to maintain the purity of his literature.