A Study on the Different Versions and Narrative Features of Jin Gil Jeon
Authors:   The Society Of Korean Literature, Chae Yunmi 
Published: December 2024

This thesis examines the different version and narrative characteristics of the classical novel Jin Gil Jeon. Jin Gil Jeon has been known as the Jin Gil Chung Hyorok, but there has never been a review of the different version and discussion of the entire narrative.
There are currently four confirmed versions: two from Chonnam National University, and one each from Dankook University and Park Soon-ho. Only the Dankook University version is a lost version. The Chonnam National University versions are all in the Jin Gil Jeon series, while the Dankook University and Park Soon-ho versions are in the Jin Gil Chung Hyorok series. There is no significant difference in content between the series. Meanwhile, Jin Gil Chung Hyorok is a version that contains the entire narrative structure of Jin Gil Jeon, “Jingil’s lifetime,” while adding the narrative of Jingil’s sister’s birth in the beginning and a military tale and a tale of conflict between spouses in the latter part. However, the narrative added only to Jin Gil Chung Hyorok was inconsistent with the character personalities and narrative logic presented in “Jingil’s lifetime.” Accordingly, it was judged that the completeness of Jin Gil Jeon was higher, and in this study, the narrative of Jin Gil Jeon was analyzed.
The narrative characteristics of Jin Gil Jeon were examined from three aspects. First, in the story of the marriage between a man and a woman, Guunmong is utilized as a allusion, but more notable is the use of previous novels in terms of narrative composition. Sodaeseong Jeon, Jo Woong Jeon, and Sukhyang Jeon were adopted for the narratives of Jin Gil’s birth, marriage, and achievement, respectively. Second, the narrative of birth, marriage, and achievement is driven by transcendental elements. Third, it is notable that the eight inserted poems assist the development of the narrative.
Jin Gil Jeon shows an attempt to vary the heroic novel type. This is because it shows the protagonist’s personal desire to achieve personal desire within the given order by using the protagonist’s life story of success as the only narrative structure, but it also has a critical difference in that it does not set up the protagonist’s suffering. If we keep in mind that Sodaeseong Jeon, Jo Woong Jeon, and Sukhyang Jeon, which were accepted in terms of narrative structure, are representative narratives of the heroic novel type in which the protagonist’s suffering is extreme, it can be understood as a result of dissatisfaction with this. But the results ended up revealing limitations. The absence of suffering caused problems such as the narrative cohesion, the dynamic of the development of the story, and the sense of purpose of the conscious orientation to become ambiguous. The emphasis on transcendental elements and the repeated insertion of songs praising loyalty and filial piety can be understood as devices to resolve this. However, the emphasis on loyalty and filial piety through song seems like an attempt to artificially instill ethical ideology, and the narrative drive by transcendental elements highlights the failure of the protagonist’s individual characterization.