폴란드 문학의 예를 통해 살펴본 19세기 말, 20세기 초 서양문학 속의 동양문화 열풍

An Oriental culture boom in the Western literature between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries discovered by a study focused on Poland literature

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the two cultures of the Oriental and the European continents were fused and harmonized, by studying the literature especially of Poland, which was affected by the Orient between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Since the medieval ages, cultural exchanges of mankind have been occurred mostly in the way that the West transmits unilaterally and the Orient accepts unconditionally. In the human historical times when such a phenomenon was recognized as a dominant tendency, an Oriental boom rushed to the Western culture in the transition period from the 19th century to the 20th century has a special meaning in the sense that it could be a key to a possibility of an ideal fusion of human cultures. The effects of the Oriental culture firstly appeared in the fields of philosophy and thought. That was resulted from a fusion of the pessimistic philosophy, which was widely propagated by Schopenhauer in the late 19th century, and the Oriental Buddhistic thoughts. The state of nirvana suggested by Buddhism to Europeans, who were annoyed with moral decadens and pessimistic views of the future, became popular as a practical morality. After all, academic interests on India and China were brought about and literary works dealing with Buddhism were in fashion. The center of the interests on the Oriental culture were transferred from philosophy to the art of Japan, which opened the door to foreign countries first. Japanese wood-block prints and the traditional play of "no" had great effects on the Western impressionism and symbolism. Especially the impressionism affected by the Japanese arts expanded to literature in turn. Many of the visits by the Western writers turned into the chances of writing impressionistic accounts of travels. Korea that adhered to seclusionism at that time emerged not as a direct effect on the Western culture. but as materials for the literature written by some authors of the West. A Polish writer, Wacław Sieroszewski, wrote a book of travel under the title 'Korea, the Key to the Far East' -written in 1905- after his visit to Korea in 1903. He shows a posture open to the Oriental culture and a tolerant attitude without prejudice in his work, which was unusual to Westerners. Like this, at the turning point form the 19th century to the 20th century when the Oriental and the Western cultures met with each other in earnest, the Western scholarship needed the Oriental philosophy and the Western arts needed the Oriental aesthetics. It went by the 20th century, "Age of Science and Industry", and has now arrived at the 21th century, "Age of Culture and Humanity". With "coexistence" rather than "clash" set forth as a premise, the future of mankind could be changed to be positive in the repetitive cycle of the two cultures' mutual response, transmission and acceptance. To fuse and harmonize the Oriental and the Western cultures is the most urgent and important problem given to human beings in the 21th century.