KOREAN CULTURE IN THE CLASSICAL NOVEL GEUMO SINHWA OF KIM SI-SEUP

Abstract

Geumo Sinhwa (“Tales of Mount Geumo” or “New stories of the Golden Turtle”) is the first known novel written by a Korean author, Kim Si-seup (1435-1493) (who was born during the reign of Sejong the Great). Like most of the early literature of Korea, it forms part of the Chinese-language literature of Korea. Although Geumo Sinhwa was influenced by a Chinese novel titled Jiandeng Xinhua (New stories while trimming the lampwick) by Qu You, it would become nativized and was believed his thought was much advanced compared to the era in which he lived. Through magic and strange stories, many elements of Korean culture were painted to indicate the historical context and the thinking. Therefore, it is said that the history of Korean classical novels begins with Geumo Sinhwa.