The document provides an overview of Korean literature from early oral traditions through modern times. It discusses the influences of Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism on early Korean literature. The hyangga poems of the Shilla period marked the beginning of a unique poetic form. During the Koryo dynasty, hanshi poems and shijo poems developed. The creation of the Korean alphabet in the 15th century allowed literature to broaden beyond the upper classes. Oral traditions like mask plays and pansori singing texts were important before the modern period which began with literary magazines in the 1910s-1930s under Japanese colonial rule.