연작소설의 구조미학 -『서편제』 연작을 중심으로- = The Structure aesthetics of a series of novels -Revolve around Chung-joon Lee`s Seopyeonje-

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this article is to analyze the structure of Chung-joon Lee`s serial novel Seopyeonje from the mythic and anthropological standpoint. In the analytical process I will try to grasp a structural clue to Chung-joon Lee`s way of novel writing in which he seeks life`s truth and mystery hidden in appearance. The results are as follows. Han (Regret). an axis of this novel, is subconsciousness which discontinuous absurdities of life and death are internalized into and an earnest wish to reach perpetuity which can be attained through the sublation of Han. Life is composed of numberless contradictory oppositions. The boy`s primal experience is composed of endless oppositions. They include temporal and spatial denotations, such as sky(sun)/earth, sea/land, grave/farm, this world/the world beyond, etc. A paradigm of binary oppositions composes the world of Han and thus life itself is all regretful. To sublimate Han with and through song is the way to the highest sense of sound. Singing is symbolic of a decisive action which transcends life`s absurdities and returns to the ontological essence of the regretful life. The decisive action causes an irony in which the singer loses her sight and adheres to song more desperately to the highest sense of sound as the pressure of hunger and poverty is getting tougher. It is because the singer should realize the ultimate value through singing. The ultimate value is perpetuity which is achieved though replacements. The male singer takes the place of his dead father, the daughter takes the place of her mother who died after hard labor, Thus, the relation between the male singer and the daughter takes the place of the relation between dead father and dead mother. Besides, stepson takes the place of the dead male singer which is left vacant and the relation of brother and sister takes the place of the relation of father and daughter. Society remains permanently through these inversions and replacements. This is the mythical and verbal existence which is realized through singing. The mythical and verbal existence realized in the family community is extended to the village community in `A Wander in Seonhakdong`. Thus, the ultimate value of which is symbolic can be said to be `the true value` of the novel and the first motive which gives life to the characters of the novel. Therefore, this ultimate value is the very power which puts in motion the language as the media of the narrative and what is revealed in such language is the mythic structure of the novel Seopyeonje.