한국 근대소설과 연애담론 - 1920년대 「동아일보」 연재소설을 중심으로

Korean Modern Novels and Discourse on Love - Focusing on Serial Stories Published in Dong-A Ilbo in the 1920s

&nbsp;&nbsp;This paper aims at studying the characteristics of the discourse on love in the serial novels published in newspapers, including Na Do-hyang&quot;s The Drama of Illusion, Lee Hui-cheol&quot;s Eup-hyul-jo and Yeom Sang-seop&quot;s What Did You Get?, in the mid-1920s, when the Dong-A Ilbo served as a venue for a public discourse. Taking a closer look at the discourse on women prevalent in the Dong-A Ilbo at the time revealed that the discourse on women&quot;s education and the discourse on women&quot;s liberation had been undergoing a series of conflicts. The discourse on love in the serial stories published in newspapers showed similar characteristics as well.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;First of all, one thing the three novels have in common was that both the subject and the object of love were modern intellectuals. Modern knowledge meant conditions for love and qualifications to enjoy a modern culture. This has something to do with the reality of the time when the modern intellectuals emerged as a new group in power. It was problematic, however, that the subjects of love in the three novels embraced the internal coloniality in the process of accepting the modern knowledge.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Second, the three novels considered the modern love of the West to be a standard and idealized the western model. Here lies the conflicts between the western-style romantic love, described as a standard, and Ellen Key&quot;s free love and Henrik Ibsen&quot;s Noraism.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Third, it was virginity that was emphasized as a prerequisite for the subject of love, women. The loss of virginity in itself represented a fallen love, so those women were excluded from the objects of love. The novels took women&quot;s moral degradation for granted, based on the sole and absolute criteria of virginity. This might be a result of putting the reality of the time in context, when the goal of education for women was to nurture a &quot;wise mother and good wife.&quot;<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Fourth, money-centric materialism served as a major variant in a love relationship. Along with the loss of women&quot;s virginity, materialism was facing a critical discourse, because it ran counter to the innocence of love.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Fifth, the subjects of discourse in three of the two novels, except for Eup-hyul-jo, were male characters representing the viewpoints of authors. This might be because of the fact that it was men who wrote those three novels, but also because the male-centered attitude had a big influence on a love relationship. The novels had a modern thinking system of the &quot;modernity/traditions or Japan/Joseon&quot; in action, which was used as a logic to justify a modern love and a love marriage. They also had risks, however, of being exposed to or assimilated into the coloniality of the Japanese colonial rule, in that Japan was described to have a comparative advantage.