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A Study on the Subversive Nature of Recent Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction in Korea - Focusing on ‘Bosulbi SF’ Recommended Works

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2026, 32(3), pp.531~559
  • DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.3.015
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : May 10, 2026
  • Accepted : October 18, 2026
  • Published : October 31, 2026

Choi Bae Eun 1

1숙명여자대학교 한국어문화연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims to offer a critique that uncovers the social value and role of children’s and young adult science fiction, with the goal of exploring its potential. To do so, it analyzes the subversive elements of recent children’s and young adult science fiction, identifying their characteristics, significance. The primary works under analysis are two highly subversive pieces recommended in ‘Bosulbi SF’: the children’s SF The Alien in the Attic and the young adult SF Deep and Blue. The Alien in the Attic is a desperate and intense survival narrative about those who have lost their homes due to a business failure or war. It overturns dominant symbols of adults, leaders, and aliens, reversing them as the vulnerable, and it promotes solidarity centered on children in the face of crisis. Ultimately, the protagonist Noah’s attic becomes an ark that shelters and saves the displaced, transforming the adult Noah’s ark story into a child Noah’s story. Deep and Blue is a science fiction reinterpretation of the classic Shim Cheong Jeon. It reimagines the mythical world that fears the Dragon King as a dystopian society ruled by technological science, subverting the sacrificial narrative of Shim Cheong Jeon into a narrative of resistance, showing that true growth in an absurd society does not come solely from compliance and adaptation. In this way, Recent Korean children’s and young adult SF earnestly reflects social issues and dedicates itself to creating child and adolescent protagonists as agents of solution. This is significant because it does not simply see children and adolescents as weak, as objects of protection or socialization, but as active, resistant subjects with the power to resolve complex challenges, and this expectation is reflected in the stories. This study identifies one of the key features of Recent Korean children’s and young adult SF—its subversive nature—by proposing a new analytical approach, and further reveals the social value of children’s and young adult SF.

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