Analysis of the Narrative Structure of Korean “East Asian history” Textbooks Based on SFL: Possibility of Embodying a Multiperspectivity in the Unit “17th Century War in East Asia”

Abstract

　　This study analyzes textbooks of the elective course “History of East Asia” in Korean high schools based on SFL (systemic functional linguistics) and verifies that the descriptive structure works from a more multi-perspective than the compulsory course “History of Korea.” It is intended and logically clarified. SFL is advocated by Halliday, and by analyzing the correlation between the subject and the predicate, the speaker’s intention can be grasped in a verifiable and logical manner. The subjects of analysis are the “History of East Asia” textbooks of four companies and the “History of Korea” textbooks of the same publisher. The analysis unit is “East Asian War in the 17th Century” in “History of East Asia” and corresponds to “the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592” and “the Manchu war of 1636” in “History of Korea”. As a result of the analysis, “History of East Asia” presented a wider variety of actors than “History of Korea” and had a descriptive structure showing the causes and motives of the actions. It can be evaluated that this is more suitable for the development of citizenship education from the aspect that the experience of recognizing the viewpoint of the past actor is extended to the experience of recognizing and understanding the viewpoint of others.