애니 베어드의 소설에 표현된 타자의 종교

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the portrayal of Korean religion in the missionary novels written by Annie Laurie Adams Baird (Ahn Ae-ri, 1864-1916), an early Protestant missionary in Korea. Her novels, published in the 1890s and 1900s, contain detailed descriptions of women''s religious life in the Joseon dynasty. Unlike other missionaries, she wrote “Korean novels” with her excellent Korean language skills. Since she also wrote a novel on Korea in English, we can compare her Korean and English works. Annie Baird represented Korean religion negatively in her novels. In The Story of Old Chang, Korean religions provided excuses for villagers to reject the Gospel. In The Story of Sait Pyul, Shamanism appears as a strong competitor to Christianity. In The Story of Ko Young-gyu, Shamanism was a main religious means for Joseon women’s troublesome life before the introduction of Christianity. The English novel Daybreak in Korea, published in New York in 1909, contains more demonized and exotic images of Korean religions. They were devices in the novels to arouse interest in Korea from American readers. However, since Annie Baird''s novels are based on Korean realities, they have value as a source of information about the religious life of the time. Based on her experience of working closely with Korean women, she provides detailed descriptions of their religious practices.