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A Study on the various views of doctors depicted in old Korean Remedy Stories
Journal of Korean Literature
2014,
(29), pp.249-285
Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
Research Area : Korean Language and Literature
Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
Research Area : Korean Language and Literature
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This paper analyzed the various descriptive perspectives and insatiable desires of doctors, depicted in the old Korean Remedy Stories which are transmitted orally or included in books. As a result, I found that the storytellers were in awe of excellent doctors who had cured the patients' incurable diseases, and they had strong desires of contacting the excellent doctors and curing their own diseases, as well. In the old Korean Remedy Stories included in books, the narrators usually shows their jealousy of the doctors who had become successful in spite of difficult childhoods or poor financial situations resulted from their lowly status. Meanwhile, in the old Korean Remedy Stories transmitted orally, I found the patients' worries about the medical expenses or doctor's fee which they should pay. And, the stories, both transmitted orally and included in books, did show not only the doctors' having sense of inferiority and unstable ego-identity result from their low social status, but also their professional sense of duty and crisis as a doctor. Which presented through the various view points of the storytellers who had described the doctors' inward consciousness in the stories. Meanwhile, I found, in the stories, the inconsistent and improper ideas of the doctors that reflected the patients' selfish greed. The stories purported that doctors must have such professional sense of duty that they willingly take the sacrifice of giving up their own lives for saving the patient's life. Besides, the storytellers purported that the good doctors should properly give their medical services free for the patients, even though they used to look down on the doctors because of their low social rank. In conclusion, I found the old Korean Remedy Stories showed the self-contradictory and selfish desires for doctors such that the patients and storytellers want the doctors' medical services free, at the same time, they would despise the doctors because of low social rank.
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