한국 근대소설과 근대 제도로서의 離婚: 廉想涉 소설을 중심으로

This study examines how divorce as a modern institution has been depicted and narrated in Korean literature, with a particular emphasis on the novels of Yeom Sang-seop. Focusing on Yeom’s early works, like Jeya (Watch Night), What Did You Get, and Muhwagwa (Fig Trees), I will analyze how the modern legal system was reproduced and mirrored in the narrative as divorce becomes established as a modern institution. Jeya (Watch Night) is a work that criticizes the evils of traditional customary law in the period just before divorce as a modern institution was established in colonial Korea. This is expressed in the form of a “suicide note” written by a female character. The novel What Did You Get is set in the period immediately after the revision of the Civil Decree for Joseon, which resulted in a change in the divorce laws. Although the legal system had been established, people continued to be stuck in pre-modern thinking. In this work, divorce is depicted as a phenomenon that circulates like a rumor or scandal. This is communicated in the form of “the letters.” Muhwagwa (Fig Trees) is a notable example of how the legal discourse around divorce was actively being revitalized, leading to the creation of a fictionalized version of the work. Borrowing from Park In-duk’s case at the time, Muhwagwa depicts the story of characters who want to pay alimony and get an official divorce. Significantly, the work seeks to explore the possibility of growth and reconciliation of the female character after divorce by focusing on the change process after divorce. The emergence of modern divorce law was one of the important events that revealed the problem between law and reality in the reality of colonial Korea at that time and established it as a narrative and plot in literature. The divorce narrated in Yeom’s work was also closely related to the media, readings, and scandals surrounding divorce at the time. The scandals, legal discourse, and models of divorce at the time laid an important foundation for divorce to function as a story and plot in modern Korean fiction.