송사형 우화소설에 형상화된 재판의 사실성과 연구사적 전망 − <서오전(鼠鼯傳)>에 나타난 재판의 양상 −

Abstract

This study concretely investigated the aspects of the reflection of the realities of lawsuits and trials during the late Joseon Dynasty period in a lawsuit-type fable novel with Seooh-Jeon and sorted out the implications of the studies of lawsuit-type fable novels. In Seooh-Jeon, trial process and judgment constitute the central axis of the narrative, and it illustrated the aspects of lawsuits and trials of the times, e.g. the coordination process between the parties concerned before proceeding to a lawsuit, the process of establishing a lawsuit, and the aspect of hearing by concrete reflection. Also, the nature of the trial was that of a trial with criminal and civil procedures combined, which was the universal trial aspect at the time. Obviously, Suryong’s judgment is an unjust judgment by bribery primarily. And yet, in the process of trial, the principles of the trial were not observed properly, and Suryong sometimes inflicted a penalty and disposal beyond the given right to punish, which also reflected the reality of the overuse of the right to punish conventionally at the time as it was. Along with this, in this work, the king’s disposal of an official of a mistrial was also embodied, which was also disposed of according to the regulations on the punishment of the official of the mistrial at the time. Like this, this work has a great value in that it most realistically and specifically illustrated the aspects of lawsuits and trials at the time among all the remaining lawsuit-type fable novels. From the results of a discussion, this work has a few suggestions concerning studies of lawsuit-type fable novels. First, this work implemented the theme by concretely drawing the problems of the trials at the time as well as unjust judgments through bribery. This shows that it is necessary to further concretize the theme, closely examining the aspects of the reflection of the trials of the times. In addition, it seems that the author of this work knew the realities of the lawsuits and trials of the times very well and had considerable lawsuit-related documentation skills as well. This shows that in the discussion on the class of authors of lawsuit-type fable novels, it is necessary to more actively consider the possibility that they are a group of people who know the procedures and aspects of lawsuits and trials well and have considerable lawsuit-related documentation skills.