애국계몽운동가 申蕭堂의 생애와 신문독자투고

A Contributor to Newspapers in the 1900s, Sin-Sodang申蕭堂

As a case of women s reading and writing, I focused in a literary life of Sin-Sodang(申蕭堂), who had contributed to several newspapers six times in 1898 to 1909. She was an active woman who eagerly participated with the Patriotic Enlightenment Movement in 1905～1910, leading women s organizations such as Jinmyeong-buinhye(진명부인회) and establishing a school. Looking into her genealogy, I found a few important information about her private life. She was born in 1853 or 1869 and died in 1930. She was a second wife of the upper class statesman and had four sons. I doubt she had been a concubine before her marriage. Her contribution on November 5, 1898 in Jeguk-sinmun(제국신문) was the first that women s writing was published in a readers column in modern newspapers. In that contribution, Sin-Sodang announced her opinion about political affairs, when the late Choseon Dynasty was like a chaos politically at that time. The six contributions to newspapers seemed to be her another practice of the Patriotic Enlightenment Movement. It was an important event in women s literary history that women readers like Sin-Sodang had begun announcing their opinion in public by readers columns in the 1900s.