조선시대 여성글쓰기에 대한 사대부남성의 인식과 표기방식

Abstract

Gentry men's evaluation of women's writing in the Joseon Dynasty period was negative in general. If the negative evaluation is the negation of women's writing, that is, the expression of desires through letters, women's writing should have been evaluated regardless of transcriptional methods, that is, Chinese classics or Hangul. However, it was not the case in the reality. Unlike women's Chinese classics writing that was severly criticized for the reason that ‘Literature activities per se are none of women's business’, women's Hangul writing was hardly restrained. This is due to gentry men's perception of the transcriptional methods; Chinese classics and Hangul. Chinese classics was the symbol of medieval universal culture and an exclusive property of upper class men. Gentry men exclusively owned Confucian ideas and learning through Chinese classics and the ability to use these characters became a symbol that guaranteed social authority and status. Although they had to use two characters; Chinese classics and Hangul after the creation of the Hangul by king Sejong, the characters that maintained gentry men's world were Chinese classics. To gentry men, the Hangul was just ‘an abusive language in the country’, ‘indecent words of middle class communities’ and ‘a novel art.’ To gentry men, Chinese classics was a superior thing that represented upper class' culture and Hangul was an inferior thing that revealed lower class' culture. This perception of transcriptional methods interlocked with neo-Confucian ideology to bring about the perception that men:women=top: bottom=Chinese classics:Hangul=superior:inferior. Therefore, although there was no repulsion against women's literature activities using Hangul, gentry men's inconvenience about the fact that women shared Chinese classics that was an exclusive property of upper class men appeared as negative views of women's writing in Chinese classics. These negative views of women's writing in Chinese classics acted as a factor that restrained women's writing activities perse. Women were unwilling to reveal the fact that they knew Chinese classics and even if they created poetry and prose or published a collection of works, they were unserved in burning it before they died. Eventually, gentry men's vigilance and criticism against women's writing in Chinese classics acted as a factor that made women adopt the transcriptional method termed Hangul by themselves.