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An Analysis of Virtuality in Occult Drama- Focusing on the Netflix Series The East Palace

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2026, 32(3), pp.325~356
  • DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2026.32.3.009
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : September 6, 2026
  • Accepted : October 14, 2026
  • Published : October 31, 2026

Jane, Seo 1

1국립목포대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examines the representation of virtuality in the Netflix series The East Palace and analyzes how it transforms and expands the conventional structure of the hero narrative. Rather than treating the human world and the world of ghosts as a binary opposition between reality and fantasy, the study approaches their relationship through the concept of virtuality, in which a latent world is actualized through bodily perception and changes in bodily states. This framework is further connected to Christopher Vogler’s model of the hero’s journey. The analysis yields four main findings. First, the world of ghosts is not presented as an autonomous fantasy space separated from reality, but as a virtual layer that becomes perceptible through bodily conditions such as Gu-cheon’s vision and near-death states and Saeng-gang’s hearing and blood. Second, the boundary between the two worlds is repeatedly produced and dissolved through relations among bodies, water, wounds, and ritual, thereby forming a liminal space in which reality and the supernatural overlap. Third, this virtuality transforms the “crossing of the threshold” from a one-time spatial passage into a repeated bodily and ontological transition. It also reconfigures ordeal and rebirth as the reconstruction of a relational subject through corporeal articulation with nonhuman beings. Finally, Gu-cheon’s return does not restore the hero to his original state, because his bodily connection to the world of ghosts persists even after he leaves the palace. His return therefore remains open rather than completing a closed cycle. These findings demonstrate that occult virtuality in The East Palace functions not merely as a device for representing supernatural phenomena, but as a narrative principle that reorganizes body, space, and the structure of the hero’s journey.

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