The act of inventing and reinventing literature in East Asia usually required a revaluation of the past. Inventing modern literature, however, required a radical revaluation of the past because its major stimulus came from outside. Never before in the history of East Asian literature had invention been forced by events of such urgency. This called for a rewriting of the past, a deconstruction of the established canon, and a formulation of a new one based on a new ideology to suit nationalist or other motives. The actual forging of modern literature in Korean began with the forced opening of the country to the outside world. It required the shaping of a new language (the vernacular style that corresponds to living speech), new literary genres, and a new theory of literature.

After foreign ships began to appear in numbers in the 1860s, Korea was compelled to open the country, first to Japan in 1876, then to America in 1882. Unlike other cases of invention or reinvention of canons, the invention of modern literature in Korea was prompted by unprecedented historical changes imposed by foreign powers: imposition of unequal treaties, political penetration and economic exploitation, and, finally, seizure of the country itself in 1910. From about 1880 to 1910, progressive officials and reform-minded intellectuals worked frantically on all fronts to learn from the West and Japan.