James Scarth Gale and the Christian Literature Society : His Crusade against “Mongrel Korean” and Search for an Alternative Modern Korean Literary Idiom
Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale (1863–1937) served in Korea from the 1880s until 1927, a time of momentous changes in Korean society and culture, and especially in Korean language, literature, and the development of a new vernacular literary language. During his last five years in Korea, Gale worked full-time for the Christian Literature Society (CLS) vetting and editing Korean-language submissions for publication along with his committee of three Korean Christian “pundits.” This paper introduces for the first time the unpublished working notes of Gale and his committee and through examining their work, finds that they were engaged in a conservative project of “verbal hygiene” designed to 1) save the riches of traditional Korean literary culture from oblivion, 2) mobilize Korean literature and literary translation into Korean under the aegis of the CLS for the Christian salvation of the Korean people, and 3) save “beautiful, idiomatic Korean” from misguided attempts at literal word translation and newfangled trends in Korean literary style based on foreign (especially Japanese) models that threatened to turn the new modern literary idiom into “mongrel Korean.” The work of Gale and his pundits at the CLS provides us with a first-hand account of the changes in and foreign influences on modern Korean, especially modern literary Korean, at a pivotal moment in its development, the early 1920s.
목차
Abstract Introduction Three Crises: Of the Times, of Literature, and of Korean Literary Language The Crisis of the Times The Crisis of Literature The Crisis of Korean Literary Language A Solution: The Quest for a Korean Christian Literature Gale’s CLS Committee: Verbal Hygienists at Work How the Committee Worked Conservative—Both Linguistically and Socially Good Composition and Good Korean Literary Style Typography, Page Layout, and Inscriptional Style (Munch’e) The Problem of Book Titles Gale’s Concern over Verb Endings The Problem of Blind Imitation and Inauthenticity Impossible-to-Understand Korean and Non-Korean Idiom and Diction Lost in a Flood of New Words Where Are All the Good Korean Writers? Gale’s Ultimate Source of Authority: His Pundits Conclusions: Gale, “Mongrel Korean,” and Korean Linguistic and Literary Modernity References
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.