• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.34
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• pp.115-147
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• 2017

This paper compared and reviewed the poetic theories and Chinese poems of the Korean author Kim Chang Heup and his Japanese counterpart, Kan Chazan. Kim Chang Heup and Kan Chazan shared largely the same opinions on poetry, and both rejected archaism. First, they did not just copy High Tang poetry. Instead, they focused on the (sometimes trivial) scenery right in front of them, and described the calm feelings evoked by what they had seen. They also adopted a sincere tone, instead of an exaggerated one, because both believed that poetry should be realistic. However the differences between the two poets are also noteworthy. Kim Chang Heup claimed that feelings and scenery meet each other within a literary work through Natural Law, and the linguistic expressions that mediate the two are philosophical in nature. However, Kan Chazan did not use Natural Law as a medium between feelings and scenery. Instead the Japanese writer said the ideal poetical composition comes from a close observation and detailed description of scenery. In sum, while Kim Chang Heup continued to express reason through scenery, Kan Chazan did not go further than depicting the scenery itself. In addition, Kim Chang Heup believed poetry was not only a representation of Natural Law, but also a high-level linguistic activity that conveys a poetic concern about national politics. As a sadaebu (scholar-gentry), he held literature in high esteem because he thought that literature could achieve important outcomes. On the other hand, Kan Chazan regarded it as a form of entertainment, thereby insisting literature had its own territory that is separate from that of philosophy or politics. In other words, whereas Kim Chang Heup considered literature as something close to a form of learning, Kan Chazan viewed it as art. One might wonder whether the poetics of Kim Chang Heup and Kan Chazan reflect their individual accomplishments, or if the characteristics of Chinese poetry that Korean and Japanese poets had long sought after had finally surfaced in these two writers. This paper argued that the two authors' poetics represent characteristics of Chinese poetry in Korea and Japan, or general characteristics of Korean and Japanese literatures in a wider sense. Their request to depict actual scenery in a unique way, free from the ideal model of literature, must have facilitated an outward materialization of Korean and Japanese literary characteristics that had developed over a long time.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.123-160
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• 2020

Manga develops by reflecting a change of society, reader's needs, and their thoughts and changes of tastes, sensitively. Shojo manga and Jyosei manga also do. We can find several kinds of meaningful changes in Japanese Jyosei manga in the 2010s. The works which represent preciousness of daily life, women's narrative and self-realization are gradually increasing. In addition, the works that deal with very touchy issues such as sex discrimination at work, sexual harassment begin to emerge. It has never been found in the manga of the former era. While this paper analyzes the social and cultural causes of these changes of the works that exclude romance and treat gender issues focusing on recent works, it examines changes of Japanese Jyosei manga in the 2010s and their meanings. I investigate the current trends of Japanese Jyosei manga in the 2010s through Umimachi Diary that represents a precious everyday life with woman-centered narrative, Metamorphose no engawa that deals with women's story from a new perspective, Good-bye My Miniskirt that tackles gender issues. Furthermore I intensively analyze how Nagi's Long Vacation and Darucyan, which win popularity from women in their 20s~30, represent lives and troubles of contemporary Japanese women. Nagi's Long Vacation represents the heroine's quest for a self throwing everything out. While Darucyan deals with self-realization, it forms of a bond of sympathy of readers by representing the heroine who suffers sexual harassment and inequal conditions very realistically. Nagi's Long Vacation and Darucyan have something in common with portraying troubles and self-realization of the working women in their 20s based on a indigenous reality to Japanese society very realistically. However they are unusual in that it is different from the manga of the former era in dealing with heroine's troubles and their solutions. The most distinctive changes of Jyosei manga since 2010 are that real issues surfaced with social changes. In addition, these social contradictions result from irrational discriminations and old customs of Japanese society for a long time. Manga reflects subtly the portraits of the times, their images of women, and their values. These changes of Jyosei manga also show the concerns of readers at that time, and it means that women began to be aware of the issues.