Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the poems of Seo Jeong-Ju as a canon. While I basically took the method of the intrinsic analysis, I ultimately paid attention to not only the place that his poems have as a canon but also the relation of influence that his poems have had on the history of Korean literature. The point aimed at in this paper are the world of 'eternity' and 'femininity' that are shown in his poems. The 'eternity' and 'femininity' are the evidence that his poems are very faithful to the poetic nature. To study 'the poeticity' that his poems have shown is an important factor that locate his literature at the place of a canon. In addition, the fact that they are faithful to the poeticity other than anything else plays the factor that his poems have tremendous influence on the history of Korean literature. Due to this interest, in this paper, I studied the combining process of the study on the eternity found in his poems and the representation of the 'feminity'. I confirmed through this process that the 'femininity' in his poems plays the role of not only as the important occasion in embodying the world of 'eternity' but also strengthening the transcendental and shamanistic aspects of his poetic world. In conclusion, the point of meaning of his poems as a canon stems from the 'poeticity' he had pursued. Seo Jeong-Ju is a poet who suggested the orthodox paradigm of Korean lyric poetry by consistently pursuing the nature and pureness of the 'poeticity'. However, the model of the orthodox lyric poetry he suggested has produced the result of narrowing down the mainstream of Korean poetry by constantly eliciting the world of tradition and folklore as the space of union and transcendence based on the principle of equality.