This paper aims at examining the relation between literature and politics, specifically dealing with essays on the novel and the novels themselves written by Shin Chae-ho. As we know Shin thought the novel as an instrument for enlightenment, however w...
This paper aims at examining the relation between literature and politics, specifically dealing with essays on the novel and the novels themselves written by Shin Chae-ho. As we know Shin thought the novel as an instrument for enlightenment, however we need to ask these questions yet; what did Shin want to do with his novels, where did Shin thought the utility of novel came from, whether his novels met Shin`s expectation. Shin thought it was the most emergent task to make people have patriotism in their mind. For this it was needed to let them read Korean history. As they thought nothing was as good as a novel for influencing people deeply in that time, Shin naturally wrote Korean history in the form of novels. The problem was that it was not sure where this power of novel came from. Shin`s novels let us know his struggle. We can see Shin`s novels became close to novels in the meaning of modern term and the intention of enlightening people weakened. This is paradoxical. Because Shin himself betrayed his first intention. After 1920`s Shin insisted literature was useless several times. Maybe it was related that he could prove the utility of literature by himself.