Aspects of Hyun-gok Jo Wihan’s Prose and Aim of the Writing Style

Han, Eui-Soong 

This article is an examination of the form and meaning of the prose in the collected works of Hyun-gok Jo Wihan. Hyun-gok was recognized for his literary skills in his time, and this can be seen in the works included in his literary collection, 『Hyun-gok-jip』(玄谷集). However, Hyun-gok has garnered more attention as a Korean novel, 『Choi Chok-jeon』(崔陟傳), than as a literary collection, and research on it has become mainstream. This article aims to examine the literature of Hyun-gok through the lens of a literary collection, which is the scholarly quintessence of the literati of the traditional period. There are more than 450 poems in the 『Hyun-gok-jip』(玄谷集), but the number of prose poems is small, only about 30. In the absence of a comprehensive study of both the poetry and prose of Hyun-gok, this book attempts to shed light on the prose as part of an approach to Hyun-gok literature. The prose of 『Hyun-gok-jip』(玄谷集) is contained in volumes 11 through 14, which consist of ‘Gyoseo’(敎書), ‘Bidap’(批答), ‘So’(疏), ‘Gyok’(檄), ‘Checkje’(策題), ‘Seo’(序), ‘Gi’(記) and ‘Val’(跋) and have the largest number of epigraphs 10. Since the number of prose in the 『Hyun-gok-jip』(玄谷集) is small and the number of works with a strong literary tendency is small, it is somewhat difficult to discuss the characteristics of prose in depth. However, the characteristics of Hyun-gok's prose can be examined in relation to Hyun-gok's life. In his prose, Hyun-gok discusses the problems of truth and false in ‘Seong’(誠) as a way to abolish and remedy the politics of the time, reveals his orientation toward ‘EunIl-gunja’(隱逸君子) in 『Chonggyedangjipseo』(叢桂堂集序) and expresses his regret for his own life in 『Jeyokceonsu- changgeonhu』(題浴川酬唱卷後). In other words, Hyun-gok appropriately uses prose to diagnose the political reality and express his consciousness of the Economy, while exploring the emotions of futility and fear of life through prose. This paper focuses on prose as a way of approaching the literature of Hyun-gok. Although the prose works of Hyun-gok are not representative of the literature of Hyun-gok due to the small number of works, it is necessary to focus on the Hyun-gok collections in order to discuss the status of Jo Wihan in Korean literature from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries. As part of an attempt to seriously study the literature of Jo Wihan, this paper emphasizes the importance of the collection in identifying the characteristics of Hyun-gok's literature in the future.

JoWihan, Hyun-gok-jip (玄谷集), futility, anxiety, truthand false, Consciousnessof theEconomy, condolences

https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003181052