고전소설의 주인공3 <숙향전>의 숙향 청순가련형 여성주인공의 등장 = Sookhyang of Sookhyangjeon Debut of an Innocent and Pitiful Heroine

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Sookhyangjeon(淑香傳)，the putative 17th century novel, is relatively early work which had a good number of readers. It is obviously a female character-oriented work, as it describes the heroine Sookhyang`s hardships in serial order. However, past research has more focused on the world view, structure, or the fantastics of the narrative, rather than the character itself. This paper investigates Sookhyang`s characteristics and the character`s possibility of typification, by focusing on her mode of corresponding with the event in the narrative, not simply focusing on her circumstances such as a war orphan, abandoned. At first sight, Sookhyang, who conducts herself according to orders of the celestial world, looks like a passive character. Although this passivity can be read as the character`s limits, her survival of the war and abandoning was due to the very feature, passivity, and the desire for existence also. Sookhyang`s corresponding mode reminds us the “innocent and pitiful(淸純可怜)”typed heroine. An abandoned girl do not have enough strength to get out of the desperate circumstance by herself. Thus, narrative of her life continues to the hopeless reality in spite of her growth. However, as Sookyang`s hardships are not the result of her false, it is enough to draw the reader`s sympathy. Sookhyangjeon is a narrative that a young and innocent female is destined to go through various sufferings, and gets to the happy ending with the appearance of powerful male character, who takes responsibility of relationships with her to the end of the story. Sookhyang is worthy of notice since she is an innocent and pitiful heroine, different from other female characters in the 15, 16th century novel.