The Literary Value of Sin Ch‘ae-Ho’s Dream Sky: A Marginal Alteration of Dante’s Comedy

Abstract

As a Korean novelist, as well as a historian and a revolutionary seeking national independence, Sin Ch‘ae-ho (1880–1936) always thought about the importance of social practice through literature. His literary activity partly derived from his understanding of Dante: he adored Dante as an enlightened intellectual and recognized his Comedy as the record of his salvation, and in writing Dream Sky he took it as his own pointer for resisting Japanese imperialism. This chapter aims to re-evaluate Dream Sky as an aesthetic reconstruction and thus to concentrate on its textual analysis, thereby highlighting its ability to achieve “marginal alteration” and dialogical imagination as a literary text.