This study examines the possibility of educational utility internalized in Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems, and discusses the practical aspects of teaching and learning of literature that can be carried out by means of the utility. Fairy tale poetry, a hybrid genre beyond the boundary between prose and poetry, and a historical product yielded by the necessity of enlightening children, has significance in the dimension of the education of genre literacy. Baek Seok said that fairy tales should be the central genre for children as they can teach wisdoms necessary for children to understand world and lead a life, and that the language of fairy tales should be highly poetic language. Based on such understanding of children’s literature, he selected the genre of fairy tale poetry, which contains old stories in a poetic form, to engage himself in creative activities. Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems specifically have the following genre properties. First, on the side of poetic form, word game elements are placed all over in Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems, and one can feel a strong sense of verbal rhythm when reciting them. Second, on the side of narrative composition, they mimic and adapt the contents and structures of old stories. Third, in his fairy tale poems, Baek Seok has achieved systematic combination of forms and contents by overlapping poetic rhythms and narrative rhythms through the repetition of identical phonemes, the repetition of identical syntactic structures, and the repetition and symmetry of narrative structures. However, Gaeguri-ne Hansot Bap contained in the elementary school Korean language textbook edited in accordance with the 2007 Revised Curriculum of Korean, is addressed in a way that is not helpful in understanding of fairy tale poetry as a hybrid genre. If genres are not fixed and invariable, literature education should provide students with opportunities to find out how numerous genres interact in hybrid genres including fairy tale poems. Experiences in teaching-learning of hybrid genres will help to cultivate literacy of various newly emerging contemporary genres.

This study examines the possibility of educational utility internalized in Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems, and discusses the practical aspects of teaching and learning of literature that can be carried out by means of the utility. Fairy tale poetry, a hybrid genre beyond the boundary between prose and poetry, and a historical product yielded by the necessity of enlightening children, has significance in the dimension of the education of genre literacy. Baek Seok said that fairy tales should be the central genre for children as they can teach wisdoms necessary for children to understand world and lead a life, and that the language of fairy tales should be highly poetic language. Based on such understanding of children’s literature, he selected the genre of fairy tale poetry, which contains old stories in a poetic form, to engage himself in creative activities. Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems specifically have the following genre properties. First, on the side of poetic form, word game elements are placed all over in Baek Seok’s fairy tale poems, and one can feel a strong sense of verbal rhythm when reciting them. Second, on the side of narrative composition, they mimic and adapt the contents and structures of old stories. Third, in his fairy tale poems, Baek Seok has achieved systematic combination of forms and contents by overlapping poetic rhythms and narrative rhythms through the repetition of identical phonemes, the repetition of identical syntactic structures, and the repetition and symmetry of narrative structures. However, Gaeguri-ne Hansot Bap contained in the elementary school Korean language textbook edited in accordance with the 2007 Revised Curriculum of Korean, is addressed in a way that is not helpful in understanding of fairy tale poetry as a hybrid genre. If genres are not fixed and invariable, literature education should provide students with opportunities to find out how numerous genres interact in hybrid genres including fairy tale poems. Experiences in teaching-learning of hybrid genres will help to cultivate literacy of various newly emerging contemporary genres.

Baek Seok, Fairy Tale Poem, Hybrid Genre, genre consciousness, genre literacy, literature education