The purpose of this study is to examine Korean and Japanese (ultimately, East-Asian) attitudes and approaches to 'the modern.' For this purpose, we analyzed 'modern characters' in Korean and Japanese novels written in the transition or enlightenment p ...
The purpose of this study is to examine Korean and Japanese (ultimately, East-Asian) attitudes and approaches to 'the modern.' For this purpose, we analyzed 'modern characters' in Korean and Japanese novels written in the transition or enlightenment period.
First, we analyzed Bak Ji-Won's novel <The Story of Heosaeng>, written in the late period of Chosun, to identify the origin of 'modern man' in Korea. This novel shows the realistic world view represented by the mercantilism and rationalism of the hero Heosaeng who is from the liberal noble class in the late period of Chosun.
Damenaga Shunsui's <The Apricot Calendar of Spring> (1842) has a theme similar to that of 'Sinsosol(the new novel)' of Korea. Analyzing this work, this writer referred to the heroine's modernistic view on love, and the patriarchal value system, the hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans and tradesmen, and the ethical limitation of the military society. We also examined a Japanese political novel entitled <The Apricot in Snow> (1866), and interpreted the heroine as a symbol of 'modern woman' who is willing to positively absorb Western learning. And then, we analyzed Hutabatei Simei's <The Floating Cloud> (1887) generally evaluated as the first realistic novel in Japan. The hero of this novel worries about the conflict between his learning and the contemporary conventions. This writer explained the hero's conflicts in the context of the social structure and situations of the Meiji Restoration. We analyzed Shin Chae-Ho's historical-biographical novel entitled <The Dreamy Sky>, and explained how the hero grows to be an early model of the nationalist. On the other hand, we examined how the confidence in the national capacity is distorted and criticized in 'Sinsosol' such as <Tears of Blood>, <The Silver World>, <The Conference of Animals>, <Mt. Chiak>, <The Autumnal Moonlight> and <The Ghostlike Sound>. This writer could understand that Shin Chae-Ho's novel embodies the conservative intention of gradual enlightenment, and that 'Sinsosol' embody the ideal of radical enlightenment. However, we criticized both the ambiguous enmity against Japan and the equally ambiguous dependence on foreign powers. Both Mori Ogai's <The Dancer> (1890) and Yeom Sang-Seop's <The Eve of Demonstration> (1922) reveal the heroes' remarkably advanced views on man and the world. The hero of the latter, who is an effeminate student attending a college of liberal arts in Tokyo, returns to Korea after receiving a telegram notifying him of the serious illness of his wife. In Korea he is confronted with the tragic situations of the colonial society, and comes to discover his raison d'etre as the intelligentsia of the colony. We contrasted the hero of this novel with that of <The Dancer> who studied in Germany. While the former casts away his effeminacy and romance to confront himself with the stark reality of the colony, the latter does so to earn a position of a bureaucrat. Both novels depict the heroes' self-identity as historical beings and their conflicts in transforming themselves from individual being to social being. These heroes are connected with the later heroes of Yeom Sang-Seop's <The Three Generations> and Nasme Soseki's <I am Just a Cat> and <Sansiro>. The formative process of 'modern men' was represented through the heroes of the Korean and Japanese novels in the transition period. This process should be examined with respect to the historical and social climates accompanying the modernization of both countries. The study on the periodic divisions and characteristics of the modernization of both countries may ultimately prove to be a useful clue to the illumination of the motives and phases of East-Asian modernization.