‘신대한’과 ‘대조선’의 사이(2) ―소년지 시(가)의 근대성

Abstract

This study is focused on the way how the concepts of ‘New Daehan’ and ‘Great Chosun’ which could be regarded as the main ideas of enlightenment project of magazine Sonyeon were formed in the poems in Sonyeon. These two concepts represented nation state and nation each. However, these two concepts neither contradicted each other nor appeared in sequential order in Sonyeon. What’s more worthy of attention is the fact that ‘Great Chosun’ totally appropriated the concept of ‘New Daehan’. Consequently, ‘Great Chosum’ began to take on a new aspect of cultural nationalism and ‘Chosun young man(朝鮮男兒)’ which appropriated the idea of ‘young boy(少年)’ was newly set up as an role model, so ‘Chosun young man spirit’ was a kind of aesthetically elaborated value to be accomplished. ‘The sea’ was an important symbol of poems in Sonyeon which stood for exploring and exploiting the outer world of Chosun. ‘America’ was symbolically designated as source of virtues needed to cultivate the national sprit. The sanctification and aestheticization of ‘Great Chosun sprit’ was closely related to the revaluation of ‘Great Ancient Empire(大皇祖)’. ‘Great Chosun’ was regarded to belong to the epic past. As the past empire ‘Great Chosun’ was set as the ideal origin of the present the integrity of ‘Great Chosun’ became the sublime purpose which should be accomplished ‘right now or at least later in the future’. In fact, the ‘Great Chosun’ spirit was much influenced by ‘New Daehan’ spirit. The former could be said as the result of projection of desire expressed in ‘New Daehan’ spirit. Conclusively, we can say that the cultural nationalism had its origin in the poems of Sonyeon and that’s why we could often find the traditional korean poetry, ‘Sijo(時調)’ in Sonyeon. ‘Sijo’ was thought to be the aesthetic form of the traditional national customs.