본고는 창작생애라는 통시적 관점과 ‘생명미학’이라는 공시적 관점을 결합하여 沈從文 소설 창작 전반에서 죽음이 차지하고 있는 의미를 고찰하고자 하였다. 우선, 소설 창작 시기별 작 품 속 죽음의 양상과 작가의 생명미학에 대해 살펴보았다. 다음으로 창작 시기별로 ‘신과 관 련이 있는 죽음’, ‘사랑과 관련이 있는 죽음’, ‘아름다움과 관련이 있는 죽음’ 등에 대해 살펴 보았다. 이처럼 沈從文의 소설 속 죽음에 대한 양상을 창작시기별로 살펴보았을 때 沈從文의 죽음에 대한 사색은 타인의 죽음, 자신의 죽음, 만물의 죽음이라는 일반적인 발전과정을 밟고 있음을 알 수 있다. 하지만 沈從文의 죽음에 대한 사색은 문학 창작 특유의 형상사유로 진행 되었기 때문에 그 누구보다 죽음의 의미에 깊이 천착해 들어갈 수 있었고, 그 결과 沈從文 특유의 생명미학 세계를 형성할 수 있었던 것이다. 이것이 바로 沈從文 소설 속 죽음이 지니 는 의미일 것이다.

This paper aims to study meanings of death in most parts of Shen Congwen's novel creation by combining a diachronic perspective on his life and writings with a synchronic perspective on the writer's aesthetics of life.
Firstly, this study looked at aspects of the death described in his novels by creation time and the life aesthetics of the writer. Results show that the death in Shen Congwen's novels are associated with God(神), love, and beauty by period. Secondly, this study investigated the death associated with God which appears in the first period. The death in his novels written in this period are all the death of others which awakens the role of the survivor. This forms a consistent theme of Shen Congwen's novels, which is "The dead are the deceased and the survivor should live on".
Thirdly, this paper looked into the death in the second period, which is associated with love. In this period's novels, love is eroticism as an inner experience and its role is to stare at "his own death". Facing up to his own death, Shen Congwen tried to overcome his mortal life from the perspective of ipeon(立言). In the process, his artistically remarkable work such asByeonseong: The Border Town could be created. Lastly, this paper studied the third period's death related to beauty. In this period, Shen Congwen associated death with beauty from a religious and artistic perspective. This shows that he contemplated over "death of others", "death of himself" and even "death of everything". In addition, in the process of contemplating over "death of everything", Shen Congwen's world of creation moved over to an abstract and philosophical phase of "pursuit of life with a complete form", perfecting Shen Congwen's unique world of life aesthetics.
In conclusion, as Shen Congwen's contemplation over death developed into an imaginal thinking that is a unique feature of literary creation, he could go deeper into the meaning of death than any one else. As a result, he was able to form a distinctive world of life aesthetics. This might be the meaning of death in Shen Congwen's novels.

1. 들어가며
 2. 창작시기별 작품 속 죽음의 양상과 생명미학
  1) 창작 시기별 작품 속 죽음의 양상
  2) 沈從文과 美, 神, 愛, 死의 생명미학
 3. 첫 번째 시기 : 신과 관련된 죽음
  1) 신과 관련된 죽음의 특징 - 타인의 죽음
  2) 신과 관련된 죽음의 의미 - 삶의 중시
 4. 두 번째 시기 : 사랑과 관련된 죽음
  1) 사랑과 관련된 죽음의 특징 - 자신의 죽음
  2) 사랑과 관련된 죽음의 의미 - 立言의 추구
 5. 세 번째 시기 : 미와 관련된 죽음
  1) 미와 관련된 죽음의 특징 - 만물의 죽음
  2) 미와 관련된 죽음의 의미 - 생명미학의 완성
 6. 맺으며
 【참고문헌】
 【논문초록】

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