earticle

영어

North Korea's literary policies have been carried out through the frame of ‘Juche realism’ without any significant changes since it was accomplished in the 1970s. However, there have been subtle changes from time to time. Discarding literary autonomy in the 80s, North Korean literature in the Kim Jong-il era shows an aspect that ideology has been consolidated again. This paper classifies the characteristics of North Korean literature into three categories, described in ≪Chosun Literature≫ in the Kim Jong-il era until the year of 2000 .
Right after Kim Jong-il's succession, the literature of embodying the successor focused on depicting Kim Jong-il as an affectionate mother as it did when shaping Kim Il-sung. But, in the late 90's when economic hardship got worse, the two ideologies in the Kim Jong-il era,
‘the Red Flag Spirit’ and ‘the March of Hardship’, were emphasized.
Furthermore, highlighting tradition and reaffirming the legitimacy of Kim Jong-il government are also distinctive features of the literature in his era. This literary tendency is a significant evidence that the North Korean literature in the era of Kim Jong-il recognizes reality as ‘a whole crisis’.