「남원고사」, 혹은 ‘境界人’의 「춘향전」

Abstract

Namwon-gosa is a representative version of Chunhyangjeon that inherits aspects close to the early version of Chunhyangjeon. In Namwon-gosa, the situation of intersection between joy and sorrow, which is identified in all versions of Chunhyangjeon, was particularly expanded. The author of Namwon-gosa encouraged the reader to constantly escape from the joy and sorrow of each scene rather than being completely immersed in them. This attitude of the author is summarized as ‘keeping distance’ from the reality in Namwon-gosa. ‘Keeping distance’ is also confirmed in the attitude toward the characters. The author of Namwon-gosa shows a complex or contradictory perspective that is difficult to define as friendly or hostile to any character or class. Conflicting perspectives on an individual and the group to which the individual belongs are sometimes detected, and both positive and negative, sympathetic and sarcastic perspectives on the same object are detected. The author of Namwon-gosa was able to ‘keep distance’ from all beings in the world without being bound by specific values, and he recognized himself as an ‘other’ to all beings in the world, in that, it is presumed that he was close to a ‘marginal man’(a person standing on many boundaries) who spanned all groups but did not belong to any group. The unique perspective of the author created a animated image of characters, and made the ‘Chunhyang narrative’ more lively and colorful. All of them are the result of reinterpreting the ‘Chunhyang narrative’ from the perspective of a ‘marginal man’ who never idealizes any being as a good person, never antagonizes any being as a villain, neither has high expectations nor resignation from others, and is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about life.