This study focused on the fact that recent studies that make heroes of historical figureshave become overly concentrated on critical discussions based on political, ideological, andhistorical assessment of specific characters and thus pay little attention to the problematicpoints of ‘modern media, narrative, and principal agent,’ which form the mechanism ofhero-making. Thus, this study attempted to empirically reveal the places surrounding thehistorical incident of the Yi Sun-sin hero-making campaign to draw out multiple socio-culturaland cultural meanings that lie underneath the surface. The hero-making of Yi Sun-sin, whichstarted in 1931 with newspaper articles used as a catalyst, was possible in an era with modernnewspaper media, modern novel writers, a class of readers, and a government that eitheroverlooked or supported this phenomenon. This study focuses on media, narrative, and genreto examine how the hero-making of Yi Sun-sin became a nationwide campaign and to observethe core content of the Yi Sun-shin narrative and the course of forming the narrative method.
The following presents the critical discussions that this study examined surrounding the media,narrative, and principal agent.
First, the modern newspaper media integrated ‘article, literature, and campaign,’ whichepitomized ‘fact (narrative), fiction (narrative), practice (project)’ respectively to lead thenational hero-making movement of the historical figure. The hero-making project of Yi Sun-sin,which was carried out by Dong-a il-bo and Yi Kwang-su in the summer of 1931, plainlyshows that how driving force and literary imagination of modern journalism could generatecollective commitment, which was aroused among the public at the time. The newspaperstirred up public interest through the so-called extra/exclusive reporting and national donationcampaigns. The characteristics of such media and genre also influenced the hero-making ofthe historical figure.
Second, the historical approach of narratives related with Yi Sun-sin displays the methodin which the character narrative is composed and spread, and depicts the dynamic relationsbetween historical, literary, and narrative forms. Character narrative is an appropriate genrefor examining the union formed between modern novels and other genres and forms. The transformation of Yi Sun-sin narratives from the biography written by Sin Chea-ho into thenovel by Yi Kwang-su involved not only formative changes but also variations in contentand emphasis. Free from chronological narrative, modern novels display the inner side ofthe agonized individual. Such characteristics magnified the feeling of loneliness and the ethicalsuperiority of Yi Sun-sin through the general arrangement of the ‘turtle ship’ and NanjungIlgi. The two factors above, which were firmly established by Yi Kwang-su’s novel writtenfrom the Yi Sun-sin character narrative, are becoming the core elements of the Yi Sun-sinnarrative, which is still being created in the present day. Yi Kwang-su is known as the firstwriter to write a modern full-length novel.
Third, it is important to closely observe the character of the principal agents that supportedor exercised caution regarding the narrative of Yi Sun-sin, who is the hero of the Japaneseinvasion of Korea in 1592. The differences in stance and practice cannot be wholly shownmerely through the competition structure that dualizes the collective identity of colonial Chosunand Japan when conducting research on Japan’s colonial period. It is essential to observedifferent opinions regarding the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 and the hero-makingof Yi Sun-sin between the Japanese government, the Japanese Government-General of Chosun,Japanese people in Japan, Japanese settlers in Korea, and even members within each group.
This will serve as a historical reference point for reflecting on the present reality, wherenational hero-making is still being carried out.
