This thesis focuses on the formal character of modern epic poetry of Korea. Modern epic poetry takes various forms modified in different times. It seeks to try to find out new forms with the basic concept of 'long poems of narration', accepting and m ...
This thesis focuses on the formal character of modern epic poetry of Korea. Modern epic poetry takes various forms modified in different times. It seeks to try to find out new forms with the basic concept of 'long poems of narration', accepting and mixing other genres. This thesis researches modification of modern epic poetry in the formal aspects of epic poetry regarding to 'de-genre' 'genre blend' and 'inter textuality of genre.'
At first, to look out the germ of modern epic, we looked at the long poetry in the 1910's. It seems that the germ of Korean modern epic is found in Lee GwangSoo's long poems in the 1910's, though it started with Kim DongHwan's "Night of the Boarder"(1925). "Okjunghogeol", or "The Hero of the Prison", was a heroic poem because of its theme of resistance and hero, rhythm suitable to recital, and its long length not like 'Gaewhagasa.' "GeukungHang", published in 1917, was in the tradition of Myth of DanGun, narrative of novel shown on MongYouRok. Especially, intertextuality borrowing traditional narrative genre shown in this poem is regarded as a unique model different of long poems.
"Night of the Boarder" is the most remarkable work in Korean modern epic, which criticized the reality through history of families and love story of individuals which was not like the traditional heroic epic. Kim Ok's "Night with Open Eyes"(1930) was most influenced by this work. These two works have intertextuality owing to both their formal sides--history of each families and love story of man and woman--and thematic sides--locality of The Yellow River and tragedy of colonized people living in the border area. In this respects, Kim DongHwan's poems proposed a direction towards which Korean epic should move.
The characteristic of modern epic after liberation was to take the experimental epic poems with mixing or parodying other genres. Traditionally, epic poetry was a genre apt to be recited, while modern epic took the form of genre which was apt to be dramatized on the stage. It means that narrative forms were transformed into dramatic mode. Kim JiHa's "Ojeok" is a parody of Pansory, Mo YoonSool's "The Nine Storied Tower in the HwangRyung Tample" wasa parody of opera genre with embracing Tales of Tower, and Ko JungHee's "Mixed Fields of People Returning" was a gut poetry embracing TalChum, Pansory and gut mode. As we know in these respects, Pansory, opera, and gut have been developed modifying and accepting other genres with reflecting musicality and narrativity.
Through this thesis, we are able to say these things. First, the heroes of epic poetry becomes to be extended to include not just historical heroes but common people. Secondly, the incidents of epic are extended enough to include history of individuals, love story of the young, and locality of some certain area, rather than focusing on the deeds of the heroes. Finally, It comes to be a gene which reflects experimental characteristics mixing other genres with diversification of narrative structure and narrative mode.