정태병 동화 연구

Abstract

Jeong Tae-byung made his literary debut by writing fairy tales for children from distinctive perspective and continued to contribute to children's literature in Korea until Korea gained independence from Japan. The reason why his literary existence was not well known until now despite the fact was because his literary achievements were buried due to social chaos immediately following the independence of Korea and the ensuing Korean war. In this paper, eighteen fairy tales written by Jeong Taebyung have been discovered and summarized in the following ways. Jeong Tae-byung published a total of thirteen fairy tales from the Japanese occupation period to liberation. In all of these stories, the author maintained consistently warm, innocent and compassionate perspective of the world. They do not have any particular ideology and philosophy in the background. He is portraying the world seen from the innocent child's point of view, showing to grown-ups how to become a child again. His fairy tale contains fun, fantasy and lessons, satisfying every requirement a good fairy tale should have. Therefore, his fairy tales are not confined to the ideological and educational limits but provide fun and entertainment, which helps derive from people heart-felt empathy. He practiced "becoming a child" as he dreamt of the world without discrimination. He published only five fairy tales from the liberation period until he migrated to North Korea for political reason. They were not much different from his fairy tales before the liberation. However, his interests in children deepened, which led to his participation in Children's Literature Committee of Literary Author's Alliance. However, even during this period, he did not produce works that were steeped in ideology and political philosophy. Throughout his life--from his initial works that were based on dream of mutual coexistence through fun and laughter to his literary debut to his last confirmed work--he has consistently maintained in his writing focus on depicting child-like innocence. Discovery of Jeong Tae-byung and his works in children's literature are significant not only in that it adds to history of children's literature in Korea but also in that it is a proof that the liberation period was not a literary vacuum after all.