이 논문에서는 현전하는 『제국신문』(1898.8.10~1909.2.28)에 실린 논설, 잡보, 소설, 광고 등 전 지면을 대상으로 고전 서사의 근대적 소환 방식과 수용 양상을 해명함으로써, 근대 인쇄매체에서 ‘소설/서사’나 ‘논설’만을 배타적으로 논의한 결과로 파생된 ‘서사의 근대성’을 재성찰했다. 이를 통해 매체가 옹호하고 지지하는 내용만을 ‘근대성’으로 논의하는 (근대 지식인과 근대연구에서의) ‘근대 계몽’을 둘러싼 모순과 착종이 갖는 ‘계몽의 역설’을 ‘서사’의 차원에서 해명했다. 첫째, 논설란에 실린 한국사 인물담과 고전서사는 원작 고전의 완역이 아니라 근대적 이념에 맞게 분절되어, 맥락성과 전체성을 상실한 근대의 논거로서 소환되었다. 둘째, ‘小說/소셜’란에 실린 소설은 야담 형식의 단편서사, 고전번역물, 신소설, 근대적 단편 등 네 유형이다. 국문으로 연재된 許生傳은 국문고소설사의 장르감각과 문체를 수용하되, 원작과의 수용 시차를 고려하여 구성, 문체, 언어적 차원에서 서사적 근대를 반영한, 일종의 ‘문화번역’의 결과로 게재되었다. 셋째, 잡보란 배치된 ‘기담’류는 ‘俚語奇談’(23회)과 ‘가소긔담’(37회) 연작이다. ‘가소긔담’은 야담 형식의 단편 서사로, 해학과 풍자가 우세하다. 이 중에는 ‘풍속개량론’을 서사의 차원에서 뒷받침하고, 근대 문화를 반영한 것이 있으나, 논리적 정합성에 균열을 보인 착종성을 드러냈다. 넷째, 광고란에서는 신소설을 긍정하고 고소설을 부정했지만, 신소설을 긍정하는 방식으로 고소설의 속성을 전유한 ‘모순’을 보였다. 고소설을 구습과 동일시하고, 신문과 대비시키며, 신소설을 풍속개량론과 연계하는 수사 전략은 이러한 이중 잣대를 표백하는 ‘계몽의 역설’의 도구로 활용되었다.
This research sheds new lights on the meaning of modernity through analyzing tatal sections of Jekuk Sinmun as like column, article, novel, advertisements etc. between 1898.8.10.~1909.2.28. and reestimates the modernity of narratives and columns which were dealt with exclusively without considering inter-relationship with other sections of that newspaper. This paper proved the ‘paradox of enlightenment’ which was originated from the contradictions and confusing surrounding the concept of modern enlightenment that was repeatedly insisted by the modern elites group who contributed their insistence on the newspapers, and also the pre-researchers who had been accepted the modern elites’ insistence uncritically. The first, the Korean classical narrative and historical Koreans’ life stories were published with cut texts which were originally written in hanmun, not with the full text by translated in hangeul, the Korean vernacular. These stories only cited as grounds for the topic of the columns which were dealt with modern enlightenment. The second, the forms of the novels that were published in Jekuk Sinmun was four types; short narratives, translated Korean classical short story, new novel (sinsoseol), modern short stories. Heo-saeng-jeon was translated in hangeul on Jekuk Sinmun with considering modern generic convention and representation style. The translation from the original text was performed with considering the concept of cultural translation. The third, there were two types of ‘kidam’ (a series of strange stories) were published in Jekuk Sinmun: Ieo-kidam (E23) and kaso-kidam (E37). A narrative form of the two is close to that of yadam, which was written in hanmun as a short story. Kaso-kidam shows some contradiction by reflecting unbalanced narrative styles, as it were it was overlapped the modern facade and traditional elements, and also it reflects modern culture and supports the columnist insistence as like ‘improvement of Korean old customs.’ The fourth, in a section of advertisement, the advertisement draft denied the value of old novel for selling the new novel (sinsoseol), but it inevitably shows contradictive perspective by appropriating old novels’s value to valuing new novel toward the readers. This paper proved the contradictory insistence and double standard of modernity with the concept of the ‘paradox of enlightenment’ and ‘multi-faced’ modernity of the narrative.