Abstract

The Six-pence Pop Novel and Feature of Sin-pa Lee Young Mee This paper is to analyse the six-pence pop novel(short and brief novels which were popular among the masses between 1920s and 1950s in Korea) in terms of feature of sin-pa and examine its status in the local pop art history. The six-pence pop novel are commonly called as 'sin-pa novels,' however most of them are not sin-pa at all. There are a whole range of such novels and they vary from those close to old-style novels to those similar to sin-pa. Some of them don't have a characteristic of old-style novels and that of melodramatic ones, either. Their main characters have a simple and formal composition of good and evil, however, such a composition is not linked to medieval world view and in this regard, is different from old-style novels. And their main characters do not possess physical handicaps which are the prominent figure in sin-pa novels and do not explore into the characters' psyche to expose their sin-pa sentiments. But how their survival is described in specific and myriad ways. These six-pence pop novels are expected to be appreciated by classes which possessed relatively less culture capital of new culture. This proves that sin-pa which have been considered to be low class were appreciated by classes with more culture capital of new culture compared to those who enjoyed six-pence pop novels.