남원 윤씨 열행 기록 「애종용(哀從容)」 연구 - 여성 중심 관계성과 유서 언어의 번역 불가능성을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study analyzes two texts in Ae Jong Yong(哀從容, meaning “being obedient in sorrow”), the late 18th century fidelity record of a virtuous madame of the Namwon Yoon family. The two texts are "Eon Haeng Rok(言行錄)" in which male noblemen record Madame Yoon's life as the narrative of virtuous woman, and nine "suicide notes" that Madame Yoon herself left behind. These two texts show the truths of different lives. In "Eon Haeng Rok," Madame Yoon is portrayed as a stereotypical virtuous woman and her life is recounted with her relationships with her father and husband as the most important. In comparison, in her nine ‘suicide notes’ Madame Yoon's own record, the women around her, that is the wives of her husband's brother and her maids, are highlighted as the most important people in her life. In particular, Madame Yoon asked repeatedly in all of her suicide notes that her maid, Jeomyeol, her daughter and granddaughter be set free from the lowest class to live as commoners. Yoon also personally left suicide notes to Jeomyeol and her daughter to express her special affection, trust and fellowship to them, and to promise that she would guarantee their descendants could live as commoners through her suicide notes. This shows the difference, in a Confucian patriarchal society, between the narratives that men recreated of a woman's life and that the woman herself left of her own life. In the Confucian patriarchal society, relationships between women were considered unsuitable for moral subjects such as the virtuous woman, they were invisible socially, and seen to be meaningless. However, Madame Yoon’s suicide notes, were focused on woman-oriented relationships which were considered socially unworthy and unimportant. I propose that it was for this reason that the original copies of Madame Yoon's suicide notes in Korean were lost and remain only in Chinese translation. In addition, I contend that as reflective material on the experience of a woman dying after her husband itself, it was impossible for Madame Yoon’s suicide notes to delivered or translated. This paper consiers, invisible woman-oriented relationships, the dual linguistic system surrounding the words of women in the late Joseon Dynasty, and the problems of the inability to translate the language in suicide notes.