It was not until after the modern from which the active investigation of
society became the proper province of literature that poverty was pervaded
as the subject of literature.
In the history of Korean novels, A great deal of attention has paid t...
It was not until after the modern from which the active investigation of
society became the proper province of literature that poverty was pervaded
as the subject of literature.
In the history of Korean novels, A great deal of attention has paid to the
poverty since 1920s, and Korean novel procured stylistic features as modern
novel.
In his earlier novels, Hyun Jin-kon persuited personal porverty in selfish
perception of the world. After, he took a growing interest in the poor class,
but he recognized their poverty as deterministic and unsurmountable.
However, before long, he understood the actual condition of poverty which
was fixed as social structue. He newly realized that the poverty which was
provoked from the Japanese colonial policy was deepend by the fact the classes between nation was running to both extremes. To conquest this condition,
he attempted the harmony through understanding between the 'poor' and
the 'rich'. It demands the moral of the 'rich' whoch premises an idea that
all men, whether he is rich or not, are equal.
He insisted in the idea that the redistribution of wealth is possible through
the principle of justice. His perception of poverty beetween classes based on
moral recognition is the outcome of the optimistic view of the world that
essentially social reform is possible in capitalistic economy system. Moreover,
he realized that though under the Japanese colonial peridd, the nation is the
unity of spontanous and most universal and pimitive human commuity
beyond ideology.
This thansfiguration of novelitic perception about poverty keeps pace with
the style of his self-conflicts, self investigation, self transcendence about the
world which are his main concerns of literature and are obtained by the
extention of perception of the world. And, his active investigation and optimistic vision about the world made him secure his own world of literature
and national ldentity under situation of the late colonial period.