본 연구는 요엘서 전반부(｢욜｣ 1:1-2:17)의 ‘메뚜기 재앙’을 ‘죄-심판-회개-구원’의 언약적 관점의 해석에서 벗어나, 메뚜기 떼로 인한 자연재해의 원인을 문학적 기교인 아이러니(irony)의 관점으로 접근하여 해석한다. 인간의 유한성과 한계를 메뚜기 재앙을 통해 보여주는 요엘서 본문은 구체적인 백성들의 죄의 본질에 대해 침묵하면서, 재앙으로 인해 고통과 절망으로 점철된 세상과 백성들이 불가피하게 맞이해야 하는 삶의 아이러니를 보여준다. 요엘서는 백성들의 죄에 대해 단순한 회개의 요청을 넘어 올바른 애도의 행위를 통해 그들의 수치를 극복하고 하나님의 백성으로서 자부심을 회복할 것이라는 희망의 메시지를 전한다. 요엘서 본문이 직접적으로 묘사하거나 또는 침묵하면서 독자가 발견하게 되는 ‘메뚜기 재앙’의 아이러니는 예언서의 언약적 관점에 근거하여 본문이 지지할 수 없는 간격 메우기(gap-filling) 방식의 해석을 지양하고, 오히려 아이러니를 아이러니 그대로 수용하면서 대안적 해석을 모색할 때 정교하게 구성된 요엘서의 문학적 기교와 가치를 향유할 수 있을 것이다.

This thesis examines the perception of the plague in the traditional era, the literary response method, the educational meaning of the present day, and the utilizing method of Chinese literature curriculum. Today, while plagues are recognized in terms of overcoming, in the traditional era, plagues are recognized in terms of fear. In the traditional era, plagues were regarded as unclear objects, and literary works were created in a way to cope with plagues. These writings were also created to intimidate and drive out yeoggwi(疫鬼), and were also created to persuade and soothe them away. However, these writings themselves show a high level of literary character. Like today's so-called literary therapy, it goes to the point of healing at the mental and psychological level through the act of literary creation. The literary character of Lee, jeong-gwi(李廷龜)'s funeral oration is a transformation of Han, yu(韓愈)'s Songgungmun(送窮文) and expanding his worries about the country through self-examination. Yu, mong-in(柳夢寅)'s funeral oration describes the tragedy of suffering human beings realistically, is bitter and concrete in criticizing the wrongdoings of yeoggwi(疫鬼). Through such criticism and intimidation, the reversal that was perceived as the object of fear changes into a weak entity, which acts as a mechanism to find and overcome psychological comfort in the pain of reality. The educational meaning and the plan to utilizing Chinese literature curriculum of the two works are as follows. The students can read the wisdom and thoughts of the ancestors who tried to overcome pain through introspection. In addition, students can comprehensively understand byeonmun(騈文), can explain the relationship between Chinese classics and Korean classics. The students can understand the traditional culture's funeral ritual to cope with plagues, and can read the format of the funeral oration, the subject and the content in multiple layers.

The exhibition <Myrtis: Face to Face with the Past> was started in 2010 in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens and embarked a journey since 2011 as a travelling exhibition inside Greece and abroad. The main purpose of the exhibition was to draw attention of the general public to the value of the ‘rescue excavation’ and of cultural heritage of Greece, by presenting the reconstruction bust of a girl whose skull was found in Kerameikos cemetery of ancient Athens. The new Kerameikos excavation was initiated by the construction of Metropolitan Railway lines in the center of Athens between 1992 to 1998. It revealed a pit of a mass burial where about 150 people were inhumed in a very hasty way without proper funeral rites or offerings. These bodies are identified as the victims of the infamous plague of Athens in the first years of the Peloponnesian War(430-426 BC). The epidemic disease killed almost one third of the city population including Pericles, and brought extreme fear and panic to the Athens society. The traditional funerary rites were totally disrupted, and the social decorum and the morality among the citizens became enfeebled. The plague and the civil war were the decisive factors to end the Golden Age of Democratic Athens. However, the exhibition organizers did not focus on the tragic aspect of this disaster and its casualties. Their main concern was to simplify the scholarly works of archaeological excavation and microchemistry analysis so that the exhibition viewers will easily understand and empathize the living value of the scholarly works of ancient Greek civilization. The centripetal element of the exhibition was the vivid face of an 11 years old ancient girl ‘Myrtis’, which was carefully reconstructed based on both the scientific data and artistic imagination. Also the set up of the exhibition was structured in order to stimuli cognitive and emotional experience of the visitors who witnessed the rebirth of a vibrant human being from an ancient debris. The museologists’ continuous efforts to promote projects of contemporary artists, publications, and school programs related to the <Myrtis> exhibition indicate that the ulterior motive of this exhibition is the cultural education of the present and future generation through the intimate experiences of ancient Greek life. Also this is the reason why the various museums that held the travelling exhibition try to make the presentation as a gesture of memorial service for an anonymous Athenian girl who deceased circa 2400 years ago. The pragmatic efforts of Greek scholars and museologists through <Myrtis> exhibition show us a way to find a solution to the continuous threat of cultural resources by massive construction projects and land development, and to overcome public indifference to the history and cultural heritage.