Abstract

The Narrative of Nation and Romantic Character - concentrating on the prince Ho-Dong, written by Lee Tae-jun Jin, Young-Bok This study observes the system composition of the Subject and Others that appeared in the historical novel the prince Ho-Dong, written by Lee Tae-jun, through examining narrative and popular aesthetic of Nation. As a result, I have noticed that this novel expresses both the delicately balanced gaze of imperialism and the resistance to it through popular aesthetic principals that include romantic irony and a romantic love. This novel leads the reader to spontaneously adapt to nationalism, then to realize both the sense of unity towards consciousness of the Korean race and the sense of imaginative unification through resistance /adaptation of the Japanese militarism. This is accomplished by yearning the primitive source and expanding romantic love to the love of the nation, ironically denying the process at the same time. Namely, this novel partially accepts the aspects of imperialism which could be sympathized, concurrently following the contrary principle of resistance /adaptation portrayed typically in colonial life by making the second best choice. In short this novel is offering a sense of imaginative unification through the concept of Nation carrying both the meaning of nation/empire. At the same time, the novel is seeking for a compromised equilibrium by nationalism.