ABSTRACT
Regardless of its complexity, a work must have readers as well as a writer to be considered a work of literature. The transmission and diffusion of literary works have not received much attention in the history of Korean literature, but such works are influenced greatly by material culture and social environment over time. With this in mind, we will look at the transmission of literary works by studying the rise of commercial publishing and the trade in works of literature in hangŭl during the last half of the Chosŏn period. Other phenomena of the trade and dissemination of works of Korean literature will be mentioned only in passing; by focusing on commercial publishing in the late Chosŏn period, we can gain a better understanding of the social background of literature and of the relationship between external and internal factors in the development of a literary work.
