한국 도교 문학 연구의 현황과 방향

초록

This study aims to systematically survey the overall trajectory of research on Korean Daoist literature and to propose directions for future scholarship. Drawing on 338 articles collected from the RISS and DBpia databases, the study employs a cross-analytical framework that examines two distinct layers: the historical periods to which the literary works under study belong, and the chronological periods in which the research itself was produced. The period-based analysis reveals that research on Korean Daoist literature has been heavily concentrated on specific authors and on youxian literature (遊仙文學, literature of immortal wandering) from the Joseon dynasty, particularly its early phase. Daoist literature of the Three Kingdoms and Goryeo periods, as well as its transformation in modern and contemporary literature, remain significant scholarly lacunae. The chronological analysis traces a pattern of methodological diversification: from the pre-1990s phase of primary source excavation and ideological explication, through the narrative-structural approaches of the 1990s and the introduction of comparative literary perspectives in the 2000s, to the expansion into ecological, gender, and cultural content discourses from the 2010s onward. On the basis of these findings, this study identifies three core tasks for the field. First, the concept and scope of "Daoist literature" must be systematically redefined by distinguishing among sub-categories such as Laozi-Zhuangzi philosophy, immortality beliefs, self-cultivation practices, and ritual literature. Second, active expansion of research subjects is needed to overcome the structural bias toward a narrow set of authors and genres. Third, the field must move beyond the dominant single-method approach of ideological explication and engage more substantively with adjacent disciplines, including ecocriticism, gender criticism, East Asian comparative literature, and digital humanities. The ecological worldview, decentered thinking, and valorization of femininity inherent in Daoism resonate powerfully with the philosophical and cultural questions of the twenty-first century. When research on Daoist literature moves beyond the cataloguing of past heritage and engages actively with contemporary concerns, Daoist literature will be positioned not as a peripheral topic in Korean literary history, but as a legitimate and central discourse within it.

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