초록 열기/닫기 버튼

The process of the birth of Korean Old Novel and its circulation can be divided into seven stages. Details are as given below. The estimated time of each stage are shown in the brackets. The first stage: the upper class intellectuals reading Chinese Novels and the court interpreters translating Chinese Novels into Korean. (15th to 16th century) The second stage: readers who had read Chinese Novels producing original Korean(Hangul) Novels using the know-how gained from the experience in reading the Chinese Novels. (around 17th century) The third stage: translated or original Korean novels getting a certain popularity among the upper part of the common people. (around 17th century) The fourth stage: the Korean novels gaining a wide popularity from the common people due to the spread of rental library. (around the year 1750) The fifth stage: the writers who were involved with the rental library business creating new styles of Korean Novel. (late 18th century) The sixth stage: the emergence of Seoul and Jeonju wood-block printed Korean Novels which were the abbreviated versions of rental book. (1820’s) The seventh stage: the emergence of movable type printed Korean novels based on the rental books and the commercial wood-block printed books. (the year 1912)