| Summary: | The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how today's sunjong manhwa (Korean
girls' comic) writers are striving to free their works from the influence of shojo manga
(Japanese girls' comic) that was predominant in the sunjong manhwa of the last few
decades. The concept of the girls' comic is presumed to originate in Japan. To go over
this issue specifically I have chosen to talk about the works of three Korean sunjong
manhwa writers who are especially popular among today's readers.
Before exploring the works of these three writers, the first two chapters address the
history of the relationship between Japanese comics and Korean comics in general and
the history of relationship between Japanese girls' comics and Korean girls' comics in
particular.
In Chapter Three, I review the aforementioned three writers and their works. The first
writer, Hwang Mina, is like a godmother figure in the sunjong manhwa world who
opened up the new possibilities for the sunjong manhwa''?, uniqueness. Hwang Mina had
difficulty defining the ethnicity of her manhwa in her earlier works. Nevertheless, going
through various stylistic stages in her work has enabled her to mature her idea of
manhwa.
The second writer, Kim Hyerin's case is slightly different from Hwang Mina's. Kim
Hyerin does not believe in the theory of the autogenesis of cultural products. Instead she
thinks it is very natural that ideas should be borrowed back and forth, including cross
cultures. In fact, she tries to apply her theory of 'absorption-maturity-fermentation' to her
works. The fact that the Japanese originated the concept of comics, her works are not
Japanese any longer since she has developed it into her own style.
The last writer, Choi In-Sun has written only a small number of short manhwa so far.
Nevertheless, she plays a very important role in today's sunjong manhwa world as she
has come up with very unique and distinctive styled works.
Borrowing the theory of absorption-maturity-fermentation, I argue that the works of
each writer represent a stage in this process. The progression that has been made from
Hwang Mina's early works to the works of Choi In-Sun reflects how today's sunjong
manhwa has become a firmly established subculture genre in the Korean manhwa world.
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