〈주생전〉의 현실지향과 미학적 특질

The Reality oriented and Aesthetic feature of the Jusaengjeon

&nbsp;&nbsp;Classical literature written in the 17th century is very important in the history of Korean literature. After Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592, there was a big change in the overall society, such as breakdown of medieval concept, the movements between social positions and the conflict of social stratum. These changes gave a great impact on the culture, art and even classical literature. That is, the style of novel in those days showed its new aspects of modern reality, comparing with the former novel which had a lot of romantic elements. As a result, the Japanese Invasion of Korea made a various kinds of arts and writings done.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;When it comes to Jusaengjeon, it was made in this changing mood. Jusaengjeon written by Phil Kwon, in the middle of Josun Dynasty is about a tragedy love story. This work played a big role for the following works like A story of Woonyoung, A Story of Chun-poong Lee, A story of Chunhyang which were about triple love affairs. Love story is a typical genre by showing the taste of the public in its theme and one of them, Jusaengjeon is considered as a developed one throughout Japanese Invasion of Korea. Thanks to this trend, a recognition of pure fiction, A Story of Gil-dong Hong and A Story of Chuck Choi could be written.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Therefore, this Jusaengjeon had a great influence on the later novel in the visual characteristics and statue. The novels written later had a similar point of view with Jusaengjeon in showing difficulties of hierarchy and the life of people in the Middle Ages.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;First of all, the feature of Jusaengjeon is remarkable in spread of the modern recognition. And this is big different from the former novels because Jusaengjeon dealt with escaping from the ghost stories and the describing individual characters in it. In other words, Jusaengjeon showed there was few differences in jobs by describing Jusaeng, who is a ruined peer and lives on a merchant. In addition, by showing that the main character, Jusaeng had a wandering life and felt frustrated at love and failed in getting back to his social position, the readers can easily figure out how much Jusaeng suffered. And we also can find these frustration and failure in life to other characters like a Baedo and a Sunwha. These are not good enough for the perfect escape from the paradigm of the Middle Ages but it is meaningful in more improved plot in love and desire for higher social level. Moreover, this Jusaengjeon has the reality of Japanese Invasion of Korea. Despite of the background of Jusaengjeon is China, not Korea, this work is meaningful in portraying the very moment of the invasion based on the reality. These aspects strengthen its significance in reflecting the life of writers of those days who were increased after Jusaengjeon.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Shortly, Jusaengjeon played an important role in circulating the next classical novel with others written in the different ages and widening the field of love story in the 17th century.