The history of literature is the outcome synthesizing the spirit of the times that is created by literature in each era, and teaching the history of literature is educationally meaningful in that the development of literature can be recognized, and th...
The history of literature is the outcome synthesizing the spirit of the times that is created by literature in each era, and teaching the history of literature is educationally meaningful in that the development of literature can be recognized, and the relationships among literary works can be grasped.
Yet, the formation of the chapter on the history of literature in the high school textbook, which was written based on the revised curriculum, 2009, is causing teaching and learning process focused on delivering fragmentary information. Therefore, this study analyzed the present construction of the chapter on the history of literature, found some problems based on its educational goals, and discussed its alternatives.
In the main body of this study, the discussion was progressed mainly about ‘the analysis into the chapter on the history of literature in the textbook of high school, 『Literature Ⅱ』’ and about ‘finding an alternative to chapter structure of the history of literature.’ As for the analysis into the chapter on the history of literature in the literature textbook for high school students, the educational goals of the chapter were set centered around the concept of ''internalization'' suggested in the revised curriculum, 2009, and the problems in it were described through the comparison and analysis of the present educational goals and chapter formations.
In this research, the problems were found that the division of the periods of literature history was arbitrary and the continuity in terms of literary history was unsatisfactory, based on the fact that in the chapter, mixed standards were used to divide eras and literary works were included depending on the mixed eras of division. Lastly, the cases where the learning goals of the chapter of literary history were not appropriate for it and those where the learning goals didn't correspond to the learning activities were described in this study.
For the alternatives of the unit structure on the history of literature, the ways to be considered for future organization of chapter on literary history in textbooks were suggested, centered on the organization of the small unit that takes the continuity of the literature history into consideration as the specific methodology. First, it was discussed that the periods of the literary history needs to be divided at least according to some principles of each period even though the names of the periods can be different. Furthermore, the small unit structure that considers the continuity of literary history was suggested in that in the chapters on the history of literature, the works representing an era should be organized while their relationships to previous and following works, rather than understood independently.
First, as for the small unit organization through parody in the same genre, it was examined that learners could spontaneously investigate the relation between a classical novel and a modern one through the classical novel, 『Simcheongjeon』, and Chae Man-sik's 『Takryu (Muddy Stream)』. Second, with regard to the theme-centered organization in the same genre, the tradition of Korean classic poetry and the differences in uniqueness of the works of each era were described with 「Gongmudohaga」, 「Gasiri」, and 「Jindallaeggot (Azalea)」.
Third, for the material-centered small units crossing genres, the aspects of succession of traditional subject matters were explained in the context of literary history with a classical tale 「Gureongdeongdeong Seonbi (Classical Scholar)」 and Oh Yeong-jin's 「Maengjinsadaek Gyeongsa (A Happy Occasion in Maeng Jinsa Family)」. Fourth, in terms of the small unit structure through aesthetic tradition covering different genres, it was investigated that learners could study the succession of traditional comical effect from the viewpoint of literary history through saseol-sijos (a form of sijo with no restrictions on the length of the first two verses) and Kim Yu-jeong's 『Bombom』. Lastly, based on the small unit organization proposed in this study, the learning activities appropriate for the chapter on the history of literature were suggested in detail.
In this way, the chapters on the history of literature in high school textbooks should be organized as chapters to learn the process of succeeding and changing the tradition and features of Korean literature, rather than analyze individual literary works focusing on classics. From this viewpoint, the study discussed structure of the chapters on the history of literature in the high school textbooks, based on the unit structure considering the continuity of literary history units.