Modern Literature
Modern Korean literature gradually developed under the influence of Western cultural contacts based on trade and economic development. The first printed work of fiction in Korean was John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (in Korean: 천로역정 Cheonno-yeokjeong), translated by James Scarth Gale (1893).
Christian religion found its way into Korea, culminating in the first complete edition of the Bible in Korean published in 1910. However, it was mostly Western aesthetic schools that influenced Korean literature. Music and classical poetry, formerly considered one as part of changgok, were increasingly perceived as old-fashioned and out of date.
Modern literature is often linked with the development of hangul, which helped increase working class literacy rates. Hangul reached its peak of popularity in the second half of the 19th century, resulting in a major renaissance. Sinsoseol, for instance, are novels written in hangul.
Read more about this topic: Korean Novels
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or literature:
“Certainly for us of the modern world, with its conflicting claims, its entangled interests, distracted by so many sorrows, so many preoccupations, so bewildering an experience, the problem of unity with ourselves in blitheness and repose, is far harder than it was for the Greek within the simple terms of antique life. Yet, not less than ever, the intellect demands completeness, centrality.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“How has the human spirit ever survived the terrific literature with which it has had to contend?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)