Sunjung Manhwa is a term that combines a form of ‘romantic love’, which has been reproduced in cultural media of Korea since 1950s, and a medium that expresses ideas by images and text. Although Sunjung Manhwa disappeared from cultural media in 19...
Sunjung Manhwa is a term that combines a form of ‘romantic love’, which has been reproduced in cultural media of Korea since 1950s, and a medium that expresses ideas by images and text. Although Sunjung Manhwa disappeared from cultural media in 1970s, it was reconstructed in 1980s when Japanese ‘Shojo manga’ were imported. The aim of this study is to review Sunjung Manhwa in 1980s as well as a history of Sunjung, which has been largely overlooked in Korean literary culture. Specifically, I aim to review『In the Starlight』and 『Four daughters of Armian』, both of which represent Sunjung Manhwa in 1980s, in order to examine the meaning of Sunjung Manhwa in Korean pop culture.
Sunjung Manhwa in 1980s expanded both quantitatively through a popular use of rental libraries and qualitatively through two cartoon magazines: a coterie magazine《9thmythology》and 《Renaissance》, the first comic magazine for Sunjung Manhwa. Sunjung Manhwa standardized characters, established structures of stories, and proposed a new structure by adopting roman-fleuve, resulting in a unique genre in Korea. Although a drawing style of Sunjung Manhwa is characterized by a westernized body type and a detailed description, it is hard to distinguish genders of characters by their visual representation. The gender representation, which seems to deny body dualism, is indicated by a warmhearted male character with blond hair or a coldhearted male character with black hair. Based on this visual representation of Sunjung Manhwa in 1980s, the tradition of the gender representation continues even after 1990s. The present study reveals how ‘completion of romantic love’, which is a consistent theme of Sunjung Manhwa, is presented by the gender reproduction of Sunjung Manhwa in 1980s.