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An analyze of System motif of Korean Web novel

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2025, 31(2), pp.399~431
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : May 11, 2025
  • Accepted : June 16, 2025
  • Published : June 30, 2025

Seo Jane 1

1국립목포대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examines the system motif utilized in Korean web novels as a schematized narrative structure and analyzes the narrative characteristics of web novels employing this motif. Web novels, appearing as popular narratives, possess motifs reflecting public desires and schematized narrative structures. The prevalence of 'regression, possession, and reincarnation' as master motifs in web novels indicates not only public desire but also cultural elements wherein readers, fatigued by a competitive society, seek to alleviate their weariness through the consumption of schematized stories and experience vicarious satisfaction through the protagonist. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the 'system motif,' which is often used in conjunction with the motifs of 'regression, possession, and reincarnation,' to investigate the narrative characteristics appearing in web novels and, based on this, identify the cultural elements implied within the texts. The system motif in web novels, which re-mediates game systems, functions as metadata by allowing the protagonist to analyze and interact with the narrative world based on the text displayed in the status window. Furthermore, quests provided through the system window clarify the protagonist's goals, rewards, and penalties, thereby serving as a driving force for plot development and granting purposiveness to the protagonist's actions. This system motif materializes relationships by digitizing objects. Additionally, due to the inherent recursiveness of the system, the protagonist can confirm third-person omniscience reproduced through the system window, eliminating all possible contingencies within the narrative and emphasizing the inevitability of the protagonist's choices, thereby highlighting narrative contingency. This paper holds significance in its analysis of the characteristics and narrative structure of the system motif appearing in web novels from both narrative and cultural perspectives. The system motif transcends a simple reproduction of gamified formats and emerges as a device that narratively represents the relationships and identity experiences within a digital society. Through this, web novels utilizing the system motif not only allow readers to experience a digitally objectified life but also provide an experience of vicarious satisfaction by eliminating the fatigue arising in the information age through the protagonist's choices.

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