Juxtaposing Literary and Historical Discourse : Focusing on the writing strategies of the webtoon “Whale Stars”

This study examines the narrative development of webtoons, or the writing strategies of webtoons, focusing on Na Yoon-hee's “Whale Star”. Especially in the digital environment where interaction between media or re-mediation between media is actively taking place, it is meaningful to examine the narrative writing strategy of a representative digital medium such as webtoon and evaluate its implications. In terms of writing, “Whale Star” shows a form of writing in which literary writing and historical writing intersect with each other. Literature, which states the world as it is, and historical writing, which states the world as it was, intersect to create a text. In “Whale Star,” there is also a writing strategy that gives realism to the text, which is the placement of literary objects on top of historical facts. Similar to the technique of augmented reality, events and objects become vividly realistic as the reality of what happened is added to the reality of history. “In Whale Star, literary writing and historical writing do not intersect, but rather have the form of a scaly structure, like the scales of a fish, which are enclosed in a form that only slightly shares the boundary. Rather than overlapping each other, history and literature lean against each other like fish scales, coloring each other. In terms of semantics, the central narrative of the armed independence struggle is overshadowed by the personal loves and struggles of the characters. In particular, the speech of the peripheral characters trivializes the larger narrative of the armed struggle for independence. The foregrounding of the peripheral narrative while overshadowing the central narrative is an important characteristic of the writing of 『Whale by Whale』.declive In addition, “Whale Star” simultaneously operates on both literary and historical levels, foregrounding events related to the independence struggle, i.e., the love and conflict between the characters that are in the background of the central narrative. “In The Whale Star, the narrative strategy of foregrounding the peripheral narrative while sidestepping the central narrative is employed. The history of the armed independence struggle and the story of the mermaid princess are intertwined and color each other, and the foregrounding of the periphery and the distancing of the center in terms of narrative emphasizes the voices of Korean women such as Cho Yoon-hwa and Suah, who have not been given a voice in history. This emphasis on the periphery and the de-centering of the center is a characteristic of the narrative writing of the webtoon Whale Star. Although the writing strategy of “Whale Star” may not be a common writing strategy in webtoons in general, it is an effective writing strategy that cross-references history and literature to give each other a sense of fun and realism, and it is still an effective way of thinking and expressing in the digital age, where genres are often re-marketed.