초록 열기/닫기 버튼
This paper aims to evaluate an in-class Danjeonhoheup (hypogastric breathing) reading of English literary works in order to verify its usefulness for Korean English literature scholars. Danjeonhoheup is a Korean traditional practice, a way of meditation, the goal of which is the production of a sound mind and sound body through the gathering of Ki (氣 , life force) and the circulation of it throughout the body. My Danjeonhoheup reading was originally motivated by my encounter with the idea of the fasting of the mind (心齋), one of the most important methods of reaching one’s identification with Truth (Dao, 道), as proposed by Chuang Tzu (莊子): “Maintaining the unity of your will, . . . listen not with your ears but with your mind. Listen not with your mind but with your primal breath (Ki, Qi).” As a way of meditation, Danjeonhoheup focuses on the combination of building internal energy (기, ki, qi, prana, life force) and the development and practice of a Maximum-Service-to-Humanity thought. A Danjeonhoheup reading, in turn, is the application of these principles to the practice of literary reading, which I have been engaged in, as a professor of English literature, since 1990. The basic structure of a meditational reading is as follows: ① Intention to read the text, ② Concentration of mind on the text, ③ Receive Ki from the text through the reader’s eyes and breath, ④ Send that ‘information’ down to the lower Danjeon or stomach (Sea of life force, 丹田), ⑤ Retransmit that information back out through vocal chords, and indeed, the whole body. At the 2015 Autumn Academic Conference of the Joonagang English and Literature Association of Korea, I read an excerpt from “The Tell-Tale Heart” by E. A. Poe, the speech of the Ghost to Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1.5.1-91), and the first speech of Satan in Paradise Lost (Book I. ll. 84-124). I, then gathered reactions from the audience, most of whom were Korean English literature scholars, the number of whom amounting to 21. I administered a survey, comprised of questions about the effects of a Danjeonhoheup reading, such as how it had helped the audience enhance their understanding of the theme and tone of the passages read; whether this method could serve them as a new means of understanding the literary work as a whole; whether they would be willing to try this method in their own research and teaching; and whether this method is recommendable to Korean English literature major students, in particular. The analysis of the survey resulted in a highly positive response. Statistically, the answers to all of the questions on the survey were significant. Admittedly, the Danjeonhoheup reading proved to be a much more effective way to understand the tone, as opposed to the themes, of the passage, but most of the respondents reported a highly positive impression to its usefulness for understanding dramatic and poetic works generally. Only one response referred to the difficulty of applying this method to the reading of long fictions. Most, though, judged the Danjeonhoheup reading to be recommendable both to professors and students, even as they admitted to the difficulty of incorporating the practice of Danjeonhoheup in their daily lives. They spoke, therefore, of the profit of adding the liveliness and focus of meditation to the atmosphere of English literature classes, where the rigor of academic research into and teaching of literature otherwise dominates.
