Abstract
Politics, democracy, and literature are generally considered unrelated domains. This paper discusses the ways in which democracy and political realities can skillfully be described in literary texts. The authors intend to confirm the opinion that literature is an effective medium of critique for repressive political systems and deficient democracies. The authors have selected Choi In-hun's Guunmong, a famous political novel, as their data source. The qualitative method of descriptive analysis and the approach of sociology of literature have been employed to scrutinize the data and to compare events that are depicted in the novel with real life occurrences. The authors found that political events such as the Masan incident and the April revolution are narrated through the dreams of the protagonists and through incidents that occur around them. Choi In-hun skillfully uses the novel's characters and events as symbols that connect fictional and real-life events.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Problematising Representation in Popular Culture |
Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
Pages | 231-245 |
Number of pages | 15 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781536179583 |
Publication status | Published - 26 Jun 2020 |
Keywords
- Choi In-hun
- Democracy
- Guunmong
- Political literature
- Symbols