허균 作 「洪吉同傳」의 復原에 대한 試論

초록

This paper examined one of the oldest arguments in the field of Korean classical literature: "Hong-gil-dong-jeon is the first Korean vernacular novel, which was written by Heo Gyun." Three different perceptions presently exist on this argument. Some affirm this argument thoroughly, whereas others contradict it completely. The third way of thinking is rather eclectic; it is regarding Hong-gil-dong-jeon as the novel which was written by Heo Gyun but was transformed from the original. This paper assumed Hong-gil-dong-jeon by Heo Gyun as jeon, a Chinese narrative genre, based on the fact that the title of Hong-gil-dong-jeon is similar to the other jeon pieces by Heo Gyun such as Son-gok-san-in-jeon and Eom-Cheo-sa-jeon, and the fact that these works are all based on real people and their historical facts. In this respect, this paper compared the motifs of Hong-gil-dong-jeon to the historical facts of Hong Gil-dong, a real person, and made a conclusion that the Hong-gil-dong-jeon by Heo Gyun would have contained the motifs as follows: 1. the child of a concubine motif, 2, the family killing motif, 3. the extortion from a temple motif, 4. the extortion from a government office motif. 5. the utopia motif. The conclusion of this paper could provide a balanced point of view between the two extreme opinions: "The existing Hong-gil-dong-jeon is the same as the original text by Heo Gyun" and "The existing Hong-gil-dong-jeon was created by an unknown writer in the 19th century." The significance of this paper lies in the fact that it verified the assumption many scholars have supported: "The existing Hong-gil-dong-jeon underwent transformation from the original text by Heo Gyun, but it was still deeply rooted in that original text."