󰡔靑丘歌謠󰡕 소재 시조를 통해 본 조선 후기 가객의 자의식 = A Study on the Self-Consciousness of Late Joseon Gagaek Based on the Sijo in Cheonggu Gayo

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper analyzes the sijo works included in Cheonggu Gayo, a collection of songs attributed to the 18th-century gagaek (singer/songwriter) Kim Su-jang, and attempts to elucidate the self-consciousness of the singers of that era. Cheonggu Gayo holds significant literary value as the first anthology of its kind, compiling works solely by singers. While discussing the characteristics of late Joseon dynasty sijo literature, previous studies emphasized the de-ideological or hedonistic nature of Cheonggu Gayo, focusing on works that deviated significantly from the aesthetic consciousness of the traditional literati. However, Cheonggu Gayo also features works that embrace traditional literati aesthetics equally, without bias toward specific themes or authors.
Chapter 2 highlights several trends found throughout Cheonggu Gayo’s sijo. The results indicate that the works in Cheonggu Gayo strongly follow the conventional diction of traditional sijo, but also internalize the intellectual world and sentiments of the literati, rather than simply imitating or adhering to convention. Various themes based on the intellectual world of officials are implemented, including the practice of loyalty as a duty of a subject, the desire to enter officialdom, and even responses when the ambition to succeed cannot be realized. Furthermore, unlike in previous studies, love songs in Cheonggu Gayo were not significantly different from the overall flow of literary and sijo history, and there were quite a few typical works.
As discussed in Chapter 3, an examination of the actual activities of Cheonggu Gayo’s authors reveals that most belonged to the middle class, clearly distinct from the literati. Nevertheless, the strong presence of literati aesthetics in Cheonggu Gayo’s works seems to be attributable to their self-awareness and considerable pride in being part of the cultural upper class, a hybrid identity of bureaucratic writers and men of the arts, or quasi-literati. Of course, the consciousness of officials, as shown in these works, cannot be equated with the ruling class's consciousness as Confucian governing subjects, in that it is qualitatively different from the pre-dynastic literati's consciousness of governing or loving people. However, they inherited the worldview of the officials while advocating broad-mindedness and uninhibitedness, establishing themselves as the cultural elite, and based on this, engaged in diverse literary activities.