Ju Yo-han's poetic literature can be examined according to the "period of studying in Tokyo, Shanghai period, period of the folk poetry movement, and that of pro-Japanese literature." This study recognized that the first three periods did not have a b...
Ju Yo-han's poetic literature can be examined according to the "period of studying in Tokyo, Shanghai period, period of the folk poetry movement, and that of pro-Japanese literature." This study recognized that the first three periods did not have a big interval between them and shared commonalities such as accepting the modern Western poetry and exploring the possibility of creating "creative national literature," thus binding them together as the his former poetic world and re-sorting the period of pro-Japanese literature that began after a ten-year literary break in his life as his latter poetic world. The study then set out to investigate the changing process of his poetry, the consciousness he pursued, the characteristics of his poetic consciousness, the internal and external contexts and continuity with the previous literature in relation to pro-Japanese literature, and the significance in the history of poetry.
Chapter II covered the characteristics of his poetry by the periods and the changing process of consciousness that he pursued until the period of the folk poetry movement, finding that he experimented with and created free verses, seeking after the West and modern times while studying in Tokyo, expressed the national consciousness in the form of free verse and reflected his nostalgia in the form of folk poetry, orienting himself toward his hometown and childhood, during the Shanghai period, and developed the movement of the folk(popular) poetry movement in full scale, reflecting on the Western inclination in the middle 1920s, with the merits and demerits of the folk poetry movement. In addition, the study pointed out that those changes to his poetry were attributed to his experiences with Western literature and the resulting changes to his attitude.
Chapter III looked into the biographic situations and the period context that converted him into a pro-Japanese poet during the period of pro-Japanese literature. The chapter examined the causes behind the Joseon spirit, which he advocated for being Joseon but had limitations as just something out of imagination, and popular orientation, which remained at the ideological level, being transformed or refracted into the Japanese spirit and popular instigation, respectively. It also addressed the internal pro-Japanese logic embodied in his poetic texts and the continuity or connection to the previous literature.
Finally, Chapter IV mentioned his significance in the history of poetry, enumerating his contributions to the formation and development process of modern Korean poetic literature.