정진규 시에 나타난 에로스 지향성

A Study on the Eros-oriented Property of Jeong Jin-gyu's Poetry

Beings and the universe move in between Eros, instinct for life, and Thanatos, death. The relationship between Eros and Thanatos is of such various aspects as of confrontation, conflict, domination, diminution, coexistence, mutualism, reconciliation and so on. The aim of this essay is to study the aspects, meanings and significance of the Eros-orientedness represented in Jeong Jin-gyu's poems. The Eros-orientedness is so powerful and consistent that it will be a shortcut to understanding of the quality of his inner world and imagination. It can be examined with such sets of keywords as “sensualness and woman," “womb and pregnancy," “birth and eggs," “little ones," “rice and meal," “nature and living things," “reproduction, rebirth and transcendence." Jeong Jin-gyu's Eros-orientedness, which has been developed focused on such keywords, can have its significance and value, on the basis of such as follow below. 1) The Eros-orientedness can be said to reflect the needs of an individual who wishes to appreciate his being and life. The individual intends to have an agreeable or optimistic vision of the universe. It is very meaningful for him to present such a vision to the world. 2) The Eros-orientedness is a protest against the modern civilization where Thanatos is predominant and at the same time a part of effort for the recovery of the modern society under the influence of its destructiveness. The total volume of such negative energy of Thanatos in our society has been greater than ever, which therefore puts more weight on the significance of Jeong Jin-gyu's Erosorientedness. 3) The Eros-orientedness has its significance in that it presents us such existence of the world of Eros in the form of concrete sensualness of life as exisiting in the realms beyond the world of the artificial and abstract. The contemporary society is in the phase of, centered on and greatly obsessed with, artificiality and abstractness overflowing. Under the circumstances, Jeong Jin-gyu's Eros-orientedness can play a certain role in counteracting the violence of the reality. 4) It contributes to our appreciation of beings and the universe from the standpoint of ecology. He begins with the study of the oriental subject “emptiness” and naturally reaches the point where beings and the universe are ecologically to be revived. 5) The significance lies in the recollection of the fact that beings and the universe will be most beautiful when they are filled with the energy of Eros. Beauty may be found in a geometrical structure. However, it makes us realize that beauty inheres in the very concreteness and vitality of Eros.