A literary study of the 『Namcheonilrok』: Focusing on the independent stories in the diary

Shim No-sung's Namcheonilrok , the subject of this study, is a vast amount of diary literature written every day for five years from the day of his exile as Gijang. However, beyond the general categories that the diary genre can handle, multiple historical, geographical, philosophical, and literary materials are intertwined vertically and horizontally. This study analyzed the stories that independently existed in the diary (i.e., stories within stories) as literary works created by Shim No-sung, and revealed the characteristics and identity of the stories. The stories that Simnosung witnessed, heard, processed, and completed in Gijang were similar to classical literary genres such as folk tales, virtuous women's tales, fairy tales, and fairy tales. Since what he heard and recorded from the listener's perspective was processed and completed using literary techniques, it can be considered a work that reflects his author's intention. The birth of this kind of narrative literature was due to his exile life, where he found comfort in listening to stories, and his writerly temperament to process and complete them in a literary way. Sim No-sung produced portraits, or character stories, of people who had a direct or indirect influence on his life in exile. Some characters are mentioned several times, and when the references are collected and combined, a single character story is completed, which is the case in Heungsam's portrait painting. The portrait of Heungsam that the reader drew at the first meeting is reversed into a completely opposite portrait at the last meeting. The ability to consistently and persistently record a person in such detail comes from the writer's temperament to explore humanity. Parakho Kim Saeng's character story is a story that strangely combines the scene where the story is made and the nature of the fun of storytelling. Delicious food is prepared with care and enjoyed, while at the same time listening to Kim Saeng's story about his difficult life. The story was made even more vivid by the real-time nature of the gathering, where the people gathered at the event also joined in, asked questions, joked, and had fun. This shares its characteristics with well-processed folk tales.