<Abstract>
Based on the studies established so far, this study is to shed light on Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry in a holistic view.
Lee Sang-hwa’s poetical work was mostly done during 1922 ~ 1927. For the purpose of study, it is divided into ...
<Abstract>
Based on the studies established so far, this study is to shed light on Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry in a holistic view.
Lee Sang-hwa’s poetical work was mostly done during 1922 ~ 1927. For the purpose of study, it is divided into early and later days. At the same time, a diachronic consideration, regardless of the time, in which the work was done, is made by subjects.
Chapter 2 deals with subject pattern. For the purpose of consideration, the subject of Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry is divided into different categories of romance and sentiment, peoplehood and populace, adoration of our land, and emotions from daily life.
Since the 3.1 Independence Movement was ended unsuccessfully, negative consciousness of reality made people abandon the possibility to change the reality through participation. It developed into a consciousness of extreme self-shutdown, in which people try to consoleof their languishment in the spirit of grieving for their pure heart, and the consciousness of disillusion became prevalent.
During the colonial period, a critic of reality starts from recognizing the reality as a dark night. And the word "night"appears frequently in Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry. However, the word "night" has different meaning in the later period from the one of the early period. In the works of the early days, "night" is interpreted as the western idea of a shelter, where people dream of resurrection. But the "night"in the works of the later days, was used to express the oriental idea of the darkness, the feeling of oppression, and the gloomy reality.
Section 2 deals with national consciousness and people consciousness. These consciousness of nationality and people led the poet to look squarely on the reality of society, and to portray the hardships of colony people such as the poverty and the loss of hometown. In those days, many people found it is hard to live in their homeland due to poverty and persecution, and had to move to Gando and Yodongbeol. The literary work of Lee Sang-hwa, which took the subjects from this situation, explains that the poet contrived to free himself from the desperate struggle in his own world by escaping from the bitter reality. Then, he tried to establish the foundation of his creative work on that bitter reality. Besides, the poet had a sympathy on the miserable life of farmers who suffer from the impoverished conditions and hunger, which caused by exploitation of the Japanese colonial rulers, and sublimated it into an adoration of his nation in his literary work. The hardships of people’s life under the colonial rule implanted resistance will in the poet’s mind, and it is dissolved in his poetry.
Lee Sang-hwa lets out his anger and laments on the distressing reality of his country. But his resistance is bumped against the limitation of being colonial intellectual. He tried to uphold his national spirit and fidelity with the sentiment of ultimate denial such as death. Lee Sang-hwa’s unfailing faith in the national independence and pride is clearly revealed in the aspect of his literary work, which connotes strong denial of the contradictory reality of the colonial rule.
Lee Sang-hwa states that it is not writer’s spirit to be alienated from the society, and be bound by one’s own emotion to dabble at poetry. Therefore, he declares his determination of participation on reality by saying that a true writer should have a straight view of reality.
Another important property of Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry is the advocacy of life. He tried to escape from the conflict and distress caused by the dark age. He embfeies thes ttherly image of the ‘earth’ into the images of nature. This image of the ‘earth’ is embodies into concrete image by its life force.
In Chapter 3, the characteristics of his poetry are studied in three categories of poetic diction, images, and tones.
The frequently used words are the keys to understand the poet’s literary world. In Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry, those are the words such as "crying, night, life, heart, sun, earth, death, dusk." And the words "dusk" and "night" both represent darkness and oppressiveness. Especially, the word "crying"appears in more than 20 poems, and the word "dusk, night" appear in 26 poems. Therefore, it can be said that the overall tone of Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry is darkness and grief.
As Chinese character takes up an important part in Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry, it is essential to understand Chinese characters in this literary work, in order to understand his poetry. Lee Sang-hwa used Chinese characters, especially during the early days of his literary work. Chinese characters were frequently used in prose, too. However, it is noticeable that he refrains from using Chinese characters in his literary work as it moves to the later days.
The images in Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry can be divided into two categories of spatial and time. The spatial image includes celestial images such as "sun," "moon," and "stars," earthen images, and the social reality, where the spatial bodies and the earthen ones come together. While the images of "sun" and "moon"have negative aspects, the image of ‘stars’ connotes positive meanings.
Lee Sang-hwa considers time as a fearful concept which leads living body to death. At that point, he gives oneself to anxiety and obsession. In Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry, the idea of death that finds us onving good time is prevalent. Here, we recognize the time as ds usarrier that leads us to death, and w usannot help but be taken by fear and anxiety.
It is also noticeable that the time in past and resent, which we experience within the context of the history, is recognized negatively. The images of time, in his poetry, can be divided again into two groups of the nature and the reality. The time in the aspect of the "nature," reveals the poet’s mindset on four seasons. He wrecks the traditional images of four seasons, and portrays "autumn," "winter," and "spring" as negative image, and portrays "summer" as positive image.And the time in reality is divided into morning, dusk, and night. Here, the "night" and "dusk," which symbolize the darkness, connotes the society of that time, and the "morning" connotes the traditional image of morning, which would be ‘hope.’ When the images of "summer" and "morning," which are the symbols of hope in this poet’s literary world, are combined, it envisions us the new "Joseon."
Considering the fact that the tone of poetry is "the voice, or the attitude of the poet," it is obvious that the tone of poetry is set depending on the attitude of the poet, and it distinguishes the poetry from other literary works. In Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry, the tone can be grouped into sentiment, satire, and criticism.
Sentimental tone can be found in exclamatory, passionate, and sorrowful expressions. Lee Sang-hwa’s poetry command a masculine and intense language, and it is not very common in other poets’ literary works of that time. Sarcastic tone and criticaltone are found in the works that reflect his consciousness of the nation and the people. Especially the critical tone mingles with the tone of resistance and be characterized as the criticism of the god.
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