<花史>의 문제의식과 의식지향

Abstract

This study examined <Hwasa (History of Flowers)>, in which the author’s voice is faithfully projected, which attracts interest by adopting the narrative technique of a history book and personification of flowers, and which is a relatively long novel among the novels written in Chinese letters by Imje. First of all, Chapters 2 and 3 studied the characteristics of the writing method of Hwasa, identified the method by which a critical mind is realized, and examined the consciousness of the author through a method of commenting on history. This study sought to examine <Hwasa> based on the aspect of personification and narrative skills in a chronological form and to understand the consciousness of the author through the comments of the historical record which was attached after the the destruction of each dynasty or at the end of each major event. As a result, the King Yeoul of the Do Dynasty was the only monarch that ruled based on virtue to the end, and the kings and dynasties afterwards were different, which headed towards a ruin. Through such stories, we can know what Imje thought of as ideal politics and figure of a monarch, and what political situations he was concerned of and was frustrated with in reality were. Based on the above discussions, this study sought to find several meanings of <Hwasa> as an early novel written in Chinese letters. Regarding the narrative technique, the personification prose mostly used in personified biographical novels was incorporated, but the story dealt with the history of dynasties rather than personified biography, and described the history of flowers, and not human beings, in a chronological form of a history book. Such writing method can be said to sharply reveal the critical mind of the political issues in reality. Thus, Hwasa can be said to have strengthened the identity of a novel genre by adequately projecting the socio-critical consciousness of the author through a unique narrative technique by gathering the tradition of personification narrative, and to have handed over such feature to the personification novels in the latter period of Joseon.