소설 읽기지도 방법의 모색 ― 사건을 중심으로 ―

Abstract

This paper issues from a recognition that in the middle school reading the novel has not been taught in accordance with the genre characteristics of the novel. It intends to anatomize the complicated aspects of reading the novel and search for the proper principles and methods of teaching it by making distinctions between horizontal reading and vertical reading, between reading the events and reading the characters, and between the surface reading and the deep reading. In addition, this study has been motivated by the fact that the current teaching method is less systematic and, instead, more heavily devoted to the result rather than the course. The elements of the novel function in the two major levels of discourse and story, and the thematic space lies in the upper part of the story level. Based on the assumption, this study proposes the event-oriented mapping of the story as a desirable method. To draw the specific process the method works, it selects Yi Chung-jun's short story "The Snow Road(눈길)" as an example and illustrates how the story of "The Snow Road" can be mapped out step by step, that is, from the surface story (the primary story) to the deep story (the secondary story). Mapping the story has a circular relationship with comprehending dominant events and subject matter, and at the center of it lies the construction of causal relation. It will greatly help students enhance their capacities for thought, imagination, and expression to grasp the story in terms of dominant events and construct and correct the causal relation of the events on the basis of the story. Therefore, teachers should develop the teaching materials and program appropriate to the text. As long as "The Snow Road" is concerned, it would be proper to lead the students to perceive the past events and fill the causal gap between them and the present events.