A Study on Lyrical Aspects of Oh Young-Soo's novels

Though the term 'lyrical aspect' is very often used in criticism of modern novels, we do not have any clear conception, except some obscure and vague definition, of it. So the novels with the tendency of overweighing emotions or feelings in them have sometimes been called 'lyrical novels'. Originally, 'lyrical' is regarded as the contrasted term with the word 'epic', and is likely to imply the conception of 'poetic'. That is why it is usually regarded as a 'normal sentiment'. In my dissertation. I have raised two questions; "what is the general conception of 'lyrical aspect'?" and "How is it used in the sense of 'normal sentiment'?" To answer these questions, I have taken some examples from the short stories of young-soo Oh. This example stories are analysed to clarify the variety of lyrical aspects and the literary values of them. One branch of the emotions is the 'sentiment' which is classified into the higher rank of our psychological attitudes. 'Sentimental' is a psychological term which has quite a similar sense with the 'lyrical' in literature, implying the cultural values such as the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of life. However, we are more naturally moved when appealed to the sentimental emotions rather than when appealed to the intellectual ideas or knowledge. When the ultimate goal of literature lies in moving the readers, it seems to be totally impossible to realize the social structure of literature in the sense of the movement of writers → works → readers. In this sense, the lyrical aspect of story, which can be identified with the most highly cultivated sentiment and the most significant emotion, is very important in the prose literature, too. Two readers may read the same novel with the different perspectives. One may be very appreciative of it while the other is quite critical to it. The difference results from their opposite opinion of literature: One regards the literature as to be a mimesis of society, representing the society in which he lives, and the other thinks of the literatures as an art with an aesethetic values. Of these two different attitudes, the latter seems to give the better appreciation of the real value of literature. In conclusion, the lyrical aspects of stories are positively to he appreciated so as to play the best elemental role in the development of novels. Of course, they are sometimes intermingled with actualism and historicalism, so that tl1e novel can fulfill both the social needs of psychologically moving the readers' human warmness. 1hanks to the combination of the two aspects, a novel will be accepted favorably as a good one