메르시에는 규제적 검열제도의 역기능과 순기능을 함께 생각하는 차원에서 자기 시대의 검열제도를 비판했다. 바로 그 점에서 그의 목소리는 마치 오늘날 들을 수 있는 것처럼 친근하게 들린다. 그러나 우리가 메르시에의 사상이 우리와 비슷하다는 사실을 강조해서 오늘 ...

메르시에는 규제적 검열제도의 역기능과 순기능을 함께 생각하는 차원에서 자기 시대의 검열제도를 비판했다. 바로 그 점에서 그의 목소리는 마치 오늘날 들을 수 있는 것처럼 친근하게 들린다. 그러나 우리가 메르시에의 사상이 우리와 비슷하다는 사실을 강조해서 오늘날 문화사의 주제와 직접 관련지으려고 노력한다면 시대착오에 빠질 것이다. 우리는 메르시에의 사상에서 우리와 친근한 면을 찾기보다는, 그같은 면을 갖고 있음에도 여전히 낯선 측면을 강조하면서 평가해야 올바로 이해할 수 있음을 잊지 말아야 한다. 메르시에가 25세기의 이상향으로 내세운 나라가 비록 18세기 프랑스 왕국의 현실과 다른 면이 있지만, 결코 산업혁명의 문턱에도 가지 못한 나라에 머물러 있다는 사실만 지적해도 충분할 것이다.
메르시에가 독자의 마음 속에서 문자를 읽으면서 독창적인 의미를 만들어내는 신비스러운 과정을 묘사하고 있음은 참신하지만, 그는 역시 18세기의 문화를 충실히 반영하는 사람이었다. 왜냐하면 그가 혁명을 예견했다고 자부하는 {2440년}에서도 그의 정치체제는 그 때까지 알려진 것 이상이 아니었으며, 심지어 그는 산업사회를 꿈도 꾸지 못했기 때문이다. 그러나 그는 당대의 여느 사상가보다 검열제도에 대해 더 구체적인 대안을 제시하려고 고민한 사람이었다. 도서출판행정총감을 지낸 말제르브가 검열제도를 시행하는 정부의 눈으로 언론 출판의 자유를 생각했다면, 메르시에는 문필가로서, 또 생산적으로 글을 읽는 독자로서 검열제도와 사상의 자유를 고민한 사람이었다.

Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Critic of the ㅊcensorship of the Ancien Régime
Myongcheol Jou (Korea National University of Education)

From reading Louis-Sébastien Mercier's works, we find that his notions of the censorship of h ...

Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Critic of the ㅊcensorship of the Ancien Régime
Myongcheol Jou (Korea National University of Education)

From reading Louis-Sébastien Mercier's works, we find that his notions of the censorship of his time are very similar to those that the scholarship has developed for the last fifty years. This article aims to analyse Mercier's works based on the notions of censorship: preventive and constituent censorship. We suggest that Mercier was a very unique one of his time, because he had not only criticised the preventive censorship of Ancien Régime for hindering him from freely expressing and publishing his thoughts, but also proposed as an alternative the adoption of constituent censorship, which is governed by the public opinion. But it is anachronistic to think him as one of our contemporary because of his notion of constituent censorship: even in his work on utopian thoughts, L'An 2440, he did not go beyond the boundary of the kingdom, nor reached the threshold of the industrial society. We might conclude that Mercier was very regretful to see the preventive censorship hinder an ideal civil society from growing in which every citizen freely writes his experience and exchange his thoughts with others. We also figure out that he had always dreamed a society like a republic of letters, which can exist if every citizen uses his ability of constituent censorship to judge the every aspect of life, and in this respect, we appreciate his originality.

Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Critic of the ㅊcensorship of the Ancien Régime
Myongcheol Jou (Korea National University of Education)

From reading Louis-Sébastien Mercier's works, we find that his notions of the censorship of h ...

Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Critic of the ㅊcensorship of the Ancien Régime
Myongcheol Jou (Korea National University of Education)

From reading Louis-Sébastien Mercier's works, we find that his notions of the censorship of his time are very similar to those that the scholarship has developed for the last fifty years. This article aims to analyse Mercier's works based on the notions of censorship: preventive and constituent censorship. We suggest that Mercier was a very unique one of his time, because he had not only criticised the preventive censorship of Ancien Régime for hindering him from freely expressing and publishing his thoughts, but also proposed as an alternative the adoption of constituent censorship, which is governed by the public opinion. But it is anachronistic to think him as one of our contemporary because of his notion of constituent censorship: even in his work on utopian thoughts, L'An 2440, he did not go beyond the boundary of the kingdom, nor reached the threshold of the industrial society. We might conclude that Mercier was very regretful to see the preventive censorship hinder an ideal civil society from growing in which every citizen freely writes his experience and exchange his thoughts with others. We also figure out that he had always dreamed a society like a republic of letters, which can exist if every citizen uses his ability of constituent censorship to judge the every aspect of life, and in this respect, we appreciate his originality.

연구성과는 호서사학회에서 발간하는 {호서사학} 제46집(2007, 4), 127-157쪽에 발표함.

연구성과는 호서사학회에서 발간하는 {호서사학} 제46집(2007, 4), 127-157쪽에 발표함.