This study adopts a comparative literary approach to two well-known poems composed in Korean and English, respectively: “Tugyŏn” (The cuckoo) by Kim Yŏngnang (金永郞) and “Ode to a Nightingale” by the English Romantic poet John Keats. In both poems the solitary speaker is responding to the bird’s song, but an intertextual reading of the two works reveals far more than this obvious similarity in the ways that deepen our understanding of their texts. Densely intertextual in itself, the text of each poem is a mixture of earlier texts which include the works of literature, historical sources, and literary or cultural conventions. Moreover, the relationship of “The Cuckoo” to the Nightingale ode proves explicitly intertextual. The third stanza of “The Cuckoo,” in particular, seems to have been produced in reaction to the seventh stanza of “Nightingale.” The imagistic structure of the former parallels that of the latter in that three successive scenes in each stanza feature different auditors (some of them being historical and literary figures) hearing the music of the bird. As illustrated by the depictions of Ruth and Ch’unhyang, a creative side do both of Keats’s and Yŏngnang’s dependence on other texts in the composition process have. In addition, the relationship between aspirations to death and the experience of beauty turns out to be paradoxical in both poems, which is an effect of intertextuality. While engaging creatively and intertextually in Keats’s ode, Yŏngnang evolved a ‘pure’ lyric style that laid the foundation for modern Korean poetry.
목차
Abstract The Intertextuality of Korean Romanticism A Comparative Intertextual Approach to the Image of the Bird The Bird’s Song and the Pursuit of Pure Poetry Three Figures Hearing the Immortal Song of the Bird The Paradox between Death Wish and Beauty Conclusion References
키워드
IntertextualityKim YŏngnangJohn Keats“Tugyŏn” “Ode to a Nightingale”
저자
Sunghyun JANG [ An associate professor of English Literature at Korea University ]
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.