Abstract

This study aims to analyze the characteristics and significance of the Samnangjin (三浪津 ) benefit concert in Yi Kwangsu’s novel The Heartless (Mujeong) from the cultural and historical context of benefit concerts around 1910. First, benefit performances and concerts held in Korea before The Heartless was published are listed and their trends studied. The Heartless was published at a time when benefit performances and concerts from the West and Japan began to increase in Korea. At the time, the logic of benefits—that one should develop a good character and contribute to society—was combined with the modern performance culture of concerts to stimulate the sympathy of the Joseon people. Though based on the popularity of benefit concerts at the time, the benefit concert illustrated in The Heartless differs from these in some respects. The features of the novel’s benefit concert, i.e. its amateurism and sense of solidarity among the performers who are students and female entertainers (gisaeng), the unusual location of the waiting room at Samnangjin station, the freedom to listen to music without admission fees, and the diversity of music from classical music to Korean music, go beyond the culture of that time. And these features allowed the benefit concert to embrace the entire audience. The Heartless shows the author’s belief that the cosmopolitanism of concerts could lead to the civilization and unification of the Korean people without opposing Japanese colonialist logic.