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영어

Romance of the Three kingdoms(三國志), written by Luo Guanzhong(羅貫中) in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel. In Korea, this novel is widely read as a book teaching the rules of everyday practical life. Although we usually take it for granted that Romance of the Three kingdoms shows the way of conduct of life, such recognition has been accepted since the period of general mobilization. During the period of general mobilization, Romance of the Three kingdoms was translated and published in Japan and Korea. It means that we need to deal with various versions of Romance of the Three kingdoms in the frame of its social and historical context. When Romance of the Three kingdoms was translated into Japanese in the 1920s, it was frequently used to represent premodern images of China in magazines and newspapers. Even some versions of Romance of the Three kingdoms went along with discourses of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere(大東亞共榮圈). This suggests there was a possibility that contemporary discourses could be projected into the narration of Romance of the Three kingdoms. Thus, this study regards Romance of the Three kingdoms, especially which was translated during the period of general mobilization, as a meaningful text. Romance of the Three kingdoms could be considered the indicator of sociocultural discourses in the period of general mobilization (1937～1945).