Т. 2. Азия и Африка: Наследие и современность

Секция XVII 194 Азия и Африка: наследие и современность. Т. 2 in relation to the traditional Korean understanding of literature (2), followed by some general conclusions (3). 1. Stages in the study of the text. Examples of perceiving text as an object: sihwa “discussions on the poetry” (Chinese shihua , borrowed from China during the Goryeo period), including instances of correspondence with Chinese scholars; some literature-related notes in personal writings of scholars, literary collections, poetical anthologies, especially those of the Late Joseon period, that contain some elements of the “classification” approach 1 . Some anthologies indicate an attempt to review and sum up the existing literary tradition represented in the texts collected 2 , thus showing a gradual transmission from traditional to modern view of literature in Korea 3 . The first “new generation” of scholars participated in first literary associations, journals, collections, appeared mostly during the Japanese colonial rule, under circumstances of the tight control and restriction. The second generation already had a free access to literary materials, which influenced their main fields of activity. Discovering new literary works and related records still remains an important field of activity for the next generations of Korean scholars, despite all variety of their literary views and approaches. Recently, a new tendency to combine the western theory-based approach to literature and the Korean traditional one resulted in appearing slogans of “getting back to the text”. 2. Traditional perception of literature is common for all Far Eastern cultures, and the Korean classification of the texts differs from the Western one. The term mun (Chinese – wen ) initially derived from the basic meaning of this character: “pattern, drawing”, acquired later the meaning of “decorated writing/ text”, to become finally associated with education and, further on, with culture in general 4 . The notion of mun includes “serious” texts, mostly historical ones (including political, administrative, etc.), but does not cover many types of texts belonging to the literature in theWestern tradition. As a result, the representatives of a new generation of scholars of the late 19 th C., such as Yu Gil-jun and Yi Gwang-su, the first who familiarized with the Western literature, started searching for a new concept of literature. As I shall try to show in the present paper, despite of existence of more or less stable terminology 1 Nikitina M. I. Korean poetry of sijo genre in 16-19 CC. St Petersburg, 1994. 312 с. ( Никитина М. И. Корейская поэзия XVI – XIX вв . в жанре сичжо ). 2 Ibid. 3 Guryeva A. A. Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry “ Namhun taepyeong-g a” (“Songs of the Great Peace under the South Wind”) (based on the block-print in the keeping of IOM RAS, St Petersburg). PhD dissertation. St Petersburg, 2012. 312 p. (Гурьева А. А. Антология традиционной корейской поэзии « Намхун тхэпхён-га » («Песни великого спокойствия при южном ветре») (по ксилографу из коллекции ИВР РАН). Дисс. на соискание уч. степени к.филол.н.). 4 Menshikov L. N., Kobzev A. I. Wen// Chinese philosophy. Encyclopedia Dictionary. Moscow.1994. P. 58-59. ( Меньшиков Л. Н., Кобзев А. И. Вэнь// Китайская философия. Энциклопедический словарь. М., 1994).