개화기소설과 문명 공간으로서의 바다 = The Novel of the Time of Enlightenment and Sea as the Civilized Space

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article is about how the sea is realized in novels of the time of enlightenment. The sea in classic novels was a natural space on that human``s will and objective were not reflected. The sea in Pyeoherok was merely a dangerous space that influenced on human survival. Until Choseon Dynasty, the sea in narrative literature was just a natural space that the human element was entirely excluded. However the situation of surrounding Korean narrative literature has been rapidly changed by the foreign culture and the trend of enlightenment. Accordingly, the press started to emphasize the ``travel`` for the purpose of understanding foreign countries from the end of 19th century. This thought has been actively reflected on novels from 20th century. In the course of being reflecting, the sea was turned to a concrete and actual space that was closely related in human life. In this point of view, one of the important characteristics of novels in the time of enlightenment must be the discovery of sea as a civilized space. Yeo-yeong-ung and Seo-he-pung-pa were examples of those novels. Yeo-yeong-ung focused on the course that an island in the middle of sea was developed from primitive and unenlightened country into a powerful nation. Seo-he-pung-pa was not only concerned with the sea itself to arouse an exploration or an adventure, but also with the building and operating of modern ship. That is to say, the former showed an interest on a political and military value of the sea, and the latter on an economic value of the sea. Therefore, the two novels had a literary significance in terms that faithfully reflected the spirit of the time of enlightenment and innovatively expanded the spatial background of Korean novel.