백대진 단편소설 연구

Abstract

Baek Dae-jin plays a significant role in the history of short stories in the 1910's, but the discussion on his works has not been activated. This paper intends to analyze his short stories, considering literary and social conditions of the 1910's. The modern concept of a genre did not appear in the 1910's. Writers occasionally employed the form of a novel as a medium to describe their world view or sense of the times. Similarly, Baek Dae-jin's short stories show us his literary theory of naturalism and theory of social evolution. Baek Dae-jin insists that Korean writers have to produce works to actually describe a dark side of realities in his literary theory of naturalism. From this point of view, his works show us characters that were victimized by capitalistic contradiction or realized it in the modernization process. Baek Dae-jin faithfully played the role as a narrator in this case, and showed the potential of the modern short story without excessive intervention. In contrast with it, he couldn't not recognize realities structurally while his theory of social evolution intervenes in the short stories. The writer's comment is excessive and works lose inner connections with composition elements in this case. These two cases seem to affect the success or failure of Baek Dae-jin's short stories.