1910~20년대 ‘자유시’ 논의에 나타난 장르적 무의식

Abstract

With the introduction of a new concept called ‘literature’ in the 20th century, poets began to advocate writing a new kind of poem, namely, ‘new poetry’. The yearning for new poetry, namely, modern poetry which is a sub category of modern literature, however, could not materialize easily. That is because although people thought ‘new poetry’ should be different from poems of the past and conventional literature, there was no consensus as to how different it should be. It was under these circumstances that poets who had studied in Japan such as Kim Eok, Hwang suk-woo, Joo yo-han led the discourse on modern poetry. Referring to French symbolism which was prevalent in Japan where they studied, they contemplated ‘new poetry’, which then appeared in the form of ‘free verse’. However, they could not accept the free verse of the French symbolism as it was, since the task facing them was to find directions for Korean (Joseon at the time) modern literature. Discourse on the free verse which got initiated under the influence of the French symbolism is now commonly accepted in the history of literature as in the conventional expression called ‘modern free verse’. It is argued that French symbolism played acritical role in the history of Korean modern poetry and foreign literary trends had decisive impact on the formation of Korean modern literature, although there were efforts to koreanize these foreign literary trends. However, such argument lacks an accurate understanding of French symbolism, and overlooks the genre sub-consciousness about ‘poetry’ shown in the process of French symbolism being accepted in the 1910s-20s. This is precisely what this paper seeks to examine. For instance, poets of French symbolism whose works were translated into Korean and introduced substantially in Korea in the 1910s-20s include Baudelaire and Verlaine. However, leading figures representing literary ideas of French symbolism were Rimbaud and Mallarme rather than Baudelaire and Verlaine. Yet, none of the works of Rimbaud and Mallarme were translated into Korean. This indicates that initially, French symbolism was accepted in a very selective and limited manner. This paper believes that the particular liking which Korean literary circles of the time showed for Baudelaire and Verlaine exhibits the unwillingness to accept literary ideas and trends represented by Rimbaud and Mallarme, while it reveals affinity for Baudelaire and Verlaine. The affinity was about musical elements. All these indicates that poets during that time did not merely ‘transplant’ French symbolism on the ‘ruins’ devoid of tradition as literati of the magazine “The Ruins” claimed, but they accepted what was appropriate according to their genre consciousness in a selective manner. Due to the influence of the 1930s, the difference between modern poetry and pre-modern poetry has been explained as poetry versus poetry / songs. However, those two were not differentiated in discussions on the free verse in the 1910s-20s. It means that the difference between modern poetry and pre-modern poetry cannot be reduced to the distinction between poetry and poetry / songs. Even when a new concept called ‘literature’ was introduced, and debate on the direction of Korean modern literature was in full swing, poetry was still perceived as “songs”. If the thought that poetry is “songs” is the reason why French symbolism was accepted selectively, rules about modern poetry should be re-contemplated.