Web Novels and New ‘Reading’

This study aims to examine the new platform created by the web and digital devices with the keyword ‘reading’ and the genre characteristics of web novels formed based on it. Web novels are an independent content formed based on digital media and a genre in itself. This is because the structure of content creation, distribution, and consumption has changed decisively as existing genre novels adapt to a new media environment called a web platform. Therefore, the discussion of web novels should be based on the sense of new materiality given by the ‘web’. It is a change in speed-based scalability, intertextuality, and content enjoyment. Web novels are narratives based on text, but I think it would be more appropriate to use the word ‘reading’ rather than ‘reading books’, given that they are placed on a media environment that can reflect cartoons, sounds, or even spirituality beyond illustrations in the text.