한국에서 일본고전문학연구 동향 ‐2005년~2011년을 중심으로‐

Abstract

To understand the nature of a country is equal to understanding the classical literature of the country and how much we understand the classical literature reveals to what extent we understand the country. In this view, this study examines the current situation and the challenges of research on Japanese classical literature and its translations in Korea. First, in order to grasp the entire situation of Japanese classical literature research in Korea, I examined articles about Japanese classical literature published in 15registered journals in Korea and sorted them annually from 2000 to 2011. The number of articles rapidly increased from 93 in 2000 to 156 in 2004, and about 130 articles were consecutively published from 2005 to 2011. Then, in chronological order I categorized the articles from eight journals scholars of Japanese classical literature regularly contributed to. According to genre, 428 articles are related to "prose" and 142 are related to "verse." "Prose" and "verse"are given considerable weight according to the number of articles, compared to the 40 about dramatic literature. This isbecause the articles deal with important literature works from the entire historical periods, such as "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki" from ancient times (Kodai), "GenjiMonogatari" and "Makura no Sohshi" from the middle ages (Chuko), "Heike Monogatari" and "Tsurezuregusa" from the medieval era (Chusei), the novels by such as Ihara Saikaku and Ueda Akinari from early modern times (Edo). Verses, such as "Manyoshu"from ancient times, Waka from the middle ages, Renka from the medieval era and Haikai from early modern times are mainly considered in the articles. And only a few scholars have published articles on dramatic literature such as Noh from the medieval era, Bunraku and Kabuki from early modern times. Thus, through the review of Japanese classical literature research for seven years since 2005, we can see that we have been through a period in which the number of articles had a geometric progression, and that we have now entered a period in whichmore than 130 articles are constantly published each year and Japanese classical literature is explored from various aspects. In a word, we have entered a certain period when we arepersuing for qualitative aspects of Japanese classical literature,after a quantitativeexpansion of the number of articles about Japanese classical literature. At present, because of the 2011.3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake, research on Japanese classical literature is at a turning point. In order to overcome this current critical state, I suggest that it may be necessary to 1) write more articles based on texts, 2) explore both diachronic and synchronic research areas, 3) conductresearch from the perspective of comparative literature and also from an East-Asian viewpoint,and 4) work on popularizing Japanese classical literature.