• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.32
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• pp.119-158
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• 2016

In this thesis we set forth the reasons for teaching classical river novels in secondary education, and investigated the guiding principles for content design of high school literature textbooks. Although classical river novels have great significance in cultural and narrative histories, they were previously consistently disregarded in secondary education. First, we looked at the need for including classical river novels in the secondary school curriculum to create a well-balanced education of classical novels, to link this with modern river novels, to teach the narrative styles and esthetics of river novels, and to let students understand the various cultures of the late Joseon Dynasty. Second, we examined two ways of educating students about classical river novels. For exclusively teaching classical river novels, we recommended the means of teaching and provided detailed guidelines by which they can be taught, as well as provided complete information about the family tree, the story unit, and the scene deployment. To establish the link between classic river novels and their modern counterparts, we recommended the process of teaching accession and transition of tradition by introducing the commonalities and the differences across three generations stories, besides discussing the viewpoints of female writers. When classical river novels are introduced in literary textbooks, students will realize the existence of such novels though they may not understand all aspects of the novels. We suggest that teaching and introduction of classical river novels in secondary education as soon as possible.