KJCKorea
Journal Central

This essay introduces <Gwanhaerok>, a collection of lyrics that has been recently excavated. <Gwanhaerok> is a work of so-called ‘gyubang-gasa’, or “the lyrical literature of women’s quarters”, in the romantic style marked by elegant and learned expressions of a group of female narrators remarking on the land scapes and impressions that they encounter while traveling along the East Coast of Korea. Historians estimate that the book was composed sometime around the nineteenth century, in the late Joseon period. <Gwandonghaega> is a dongche-yimyeong, i.e., much of the same work with a different title. The two collections of lyrics, in other words, share quite a similar form and structure, with the only exception being the fact that <Gwanhaerok> contains 60 phrases or so more than <Gwandonghaega>. No author has been identified for <Gwanhaerok>, nor has a different version or edition been found. It remains to be determined which of the two collections precedes the other. For the purpose of this essay, I assume that <Gwanhaero> is the later and more expanded take on <Gwandonghaega>, <Gwanhaerok> provides a significant clue for tracing the evolution of lyrics as a literary genre through the late Joseon period. The collection also contains a number of unique words that are no longer used in the Korean language

gyubang-gasa, Yu Jae-ha, adaptation, travel gasa, Hwang- sanbyeolgok