ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

“Dupojeon” was the first work by Kim Yoo-jung to fictionalize a baby hero story. After his death, the novel was published in <소년>, a juvenile magazine. This study aims to compare the characters and main events of Dupojeon with those of Eastern Asian baby hero stories and explore the cause and meaning of variation while considering the contemporaneous social conditions and writer`s circumstances. Unlike typical baby heroes in Korean folklore, Dupo in Dupojeon experiences a positive ending as a result of securing both an upbringer and time to mature. Moreover, in contrast with Japanese and Mongolian baby heroses, he exhibits unique characteristics. His response to the antagonist is surprisingly defensive and he exhibits more patience than is typical of his character type. This is essentially due to Dupo’s characterization as a “hidden figure”. Leaving his home and confronting external and powerful enemies, most baby heroes in Japanese and Mongolian stories win outside their homes. However, Dupo is harassed by villagers in a secluded area to avoid enemies. This setting is in line with the story of a Korean baby hero whose killer had a common enemy with him. “Dupojeon” can be seen as a means with which a colonial writer expresseed his extreme ordeal at the end of Japanese colonial rule. The fantasy that humans experience in distressing situations is that of Heaven's Help. Divine punishment, embodied by Kim Yoo-jung in “Dupojeon”, functions as a Heaven`s Help fantasy.

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