전통과 근대의 바다 ― 한국과 중국의 20세기 전반기 바다 관련 시 고찰

Abstract

Focusing on literary images and notions of the sea in the works of modern Korean and Chinese poets, such as Choi Namseon, Guo Moruo, Kim Girim, and Xu Zhimo, this study explores the process of change from traditional to modern cultures and re-examines the value of modernity. It has often been suggested that the history of modern Korean and Chinese poetry takes root in cultural conflicts between external impact and internal reaction to modernity. Drawing on the notion of tradition against modernity, this study first investigates how sea has traditionally been depicted in Korean and Chinese literature and compares the traditional images with modern ones in terms of Eastern and Western cultures. Second, this study thematically reviews modernity in the works of Korean and Chinese poets. This discussion unfolds that for Choi Namseon and Guo Moruo, the sea represents an open space that both extends and leads to the new modern world. Finally, this study views the sea as an aesthetic object of modernity, discussing similarity and difference between Korean and Chinese modernity. For this issue, I deal with Korean writers, Kim Girim and Chinese writers Xu Zhimo. It was Kim Girim and Xu Zhimo loosened modern Korean and Chinese poetry from its traditional enlightening meaning and granted it with the considerable pathos of human existence: the sea finally emerged as the aesthetic object of modernity in modern Korean and Chinese literature. While demonstrating the way in which modern Korean and Chinese poets employ sea images to review modernity, this project will contribute to re-mapping the overview of the modern history of Korea and China.