@article{ART003177237},
author={Kim Sowon},
title={The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2025},
volume={31},
number={1},
pages={221-256}
TY - JOUR
AU - Kim Sowon
TI - The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2025
VL - 31
IS - 1
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 221
EP - 256
SN - 1738-3188
AB - This study is to discuss the change of narrative of sunjeong manhwa from Han, Sung-Hak’s Eternal Bell in 1957 to the late 1960s. It will be limited to the two periods from 1957 to 1964, Um, Hee-Ja’s debut year, and from 1965 to 1969. Because Um, Hee-Ja’s debut comics A Star of Happiness was very innovative and had a huge impact on sunjeong manhwa later on. I researched the collections of Korean Manhwa Musesum in Korea Manhwa Contents Agency and ChungKang Comics History Museum in ChungKang College of Cultural Industries, and lots of individual collections. Of them, I examined the mystery narrative of 17 works.
The narrative of early sunjeong manhwa established the unique narrative by reflecting the social reality and the readers’ needs right after the Korean War. Early sunjeong manhwa focused on the resignation and sacrifice of girls as a tear-jerking narrative based on a bleak reality such as the war, the absence of parents, poverty etc. This is the result that the perspectives of devotion and sacrifice were forced to the women of the time, which was projected in the comics. Sunjeong manhwa broke away from the outdaged tear-jerking form and sought the changes by adopting fantasy genre as a major narrative since the mid-1960s. Fantasy was greatly loved by the readers by maximalizing the splendid visual expressions peculiar to sunjeong manhwa. Reaching the late 1960s, it started to show round and active characters while extending the range of narratives. Like this, sunjeong manhwa changed and developed according to the passing of time. However, the censorship on comics which was reinforced since 1968 was the decisive factor that impeded the growth of sunjeong manhwa. Censorship limited comics to children’s. Furthermore, censorship repressed sunjeong manhwa’s glamorous visual expression and its freedom to develop full-length narrative. As a result, sunjeong manhwa fastly declined.
This study investigated that sunjeong manhwa in 1960s developed the narrative of myoungrang which used various subject matter after tear-jerking and fantasy. Through this study, I revealed that the sunjeong manhwa in the 1960s was finally developed into the narrative of myoungrang which used diverse materials from sinpa to fantasy, and was changed by swiftly reacting the situation of the times and the readers’ needs.
KW - sunjeong manhwa;comics;Korean comics;tear-jerking narrative;fantasy;myoungrang;narrative of sunjeong manhwa;1950s;1960s
DO -
UR -
ER -
Kim Sowon. (2025). The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(1), 221-256.
Kim Sowon. 2025, "The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.31, no.1 pp.221-256.
Kim Sowon "The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969" Journal of Popular Narrative 31.1 pp.221-256 (2025) : 221.
Kim Sowon. The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969. 2025; 31(1), 221-256.
Kim Sowon. "The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.1 (2025) : 221-256.
Kim Sowon. The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(1), 221-256.
Kim Sowon. The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2025; 31(1) 221-256.
Kim Sowon. The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969. 2025; 31(1), 221-256.
Kim Sowon. "The Changes of Narratives of Early “Sunjeong Manhwa” - Focusing on the Years 1957-1969" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.1 (2025) : 221-256.
