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영어

This study aims at identifying the implications of Moo-young Lee’s “Novel Writing Skill,” a book about creative writing published in the Liberation Period of Korea, as part of studies on the system of modern literature education. Although the knowledge framework of “Korean Language and Literature” is established and communicated within social, economic and cultural boundaries, it is realized as practical and real “knowledge” in academia, like universities and academic societies. Around the Liberation Period, modern literature studies were regarded as peripheral while classics and Korean language studies were mainstreamed. Creative writing books of the Liberation Period are important research materials that demonstrate how journalism and academism bifurcated in their relations with the college education system and how they laid the foundation for literature theory publications. Among them, “Novel Writing Skill” of Lee is the first creative writing book published within the college education system. The book is particularly significant as a theory book created in the course of establishing the college education system as it was based on of the “Creative Writing” lecture of Seoul National University. His book theorized ethical value that emphasized purity and sophistication of literature, which were represented by South Korean writers of the time. When Lee discussed the fictional nature of novels, he put a higher priority on sincerity of the topics than completeness of narrative structures. His literary goal was enlightenment practices that eventually led to a standard of cultural writing. Lee’s enlightenment literature is a transformation of pure literature of then-South Korean writers in the course of institutionalizing literature studies as part of college education. To reiterate originality of literature separated from politics, they had to emphasize ethics and sophistication of literature; and consequently enlightenment literature became the core of Korean literature of the Liberation Period.